Crikey! Crock Eats Shark Down Under
Yeah, I know … LBA and I are going with an Aussie theme this morning … But seems Australia is hopping with the better news today … HEH! Too bad we can’t set Men At Work’s “Land Down Under” as background music for the last couple stories …
Anybody ever been to Australia? I haven’t, myself, but it’s the only other country I’d willingly live in outside the USA.
Crocodile and shark clash in battle Down Under
By Nick Squires - Telegraph -
It is being heralded as the clash of the titans – the moment when a crocodile and a shark went head to head in the wilds of Australia, and the shark came off second best.
The nine foot long saltwater croc attacked the shark in a river and then hauled it onto the bank in order make a meal of it.
An amateur fisherman captured the extraordinary clash between Australia’s two most feared predators while on a barramundi fishing trip in the Northern Territory.
“We went past one section of the river and we heard some splashing,” Paul van Bruggen told the Northern Territory News in Darwin.
“We looked across and saw a shark’s tail coming up out of the water and then a crocodile’s head came up and grabbed it.”
By dragging the flailing shark onto dry land, the crocodile appeared to have adapted its hunting technique to its prey – crocodiles normally snatch animals such as wild pigs and kangaroos from the river bank and then plunge them into a ‘death roll’ underwater.
“How smart is the crocodile? It if was you or me it would be dragging you in to drown you, but it takes the shark up on dry land,” said Mr van Bruggen.
The amazing encounter – rarely captured on film before – took place in the Daly River, one of many huge tropical river systems which empty into the Timor Sea, off Australia’s north coast.
The crocodile was unfazed by the presence of the fishermen, who flocked to the area last week for a barramundi fishing competition, the Barra Classic.
“We were about 15 metres away and it didn’t bat an eyelid,” said Mr van Bruggen.
Saltwater, or estuarine, crocodiles are among the most aggressive predators in the world. They can grow up to 23 feet in length and weigh more than a ton.
The number of saltwater crocodiles has dramatically increased across northern Australia since commercial hunting was banned in the early 1970s.
From a low point of about 5,000, there are now estimated to be up to 85,000 in the Northern Territory alone, with tens of thousands more in neighbouring Queensland and Western Australia.
About a dozen people have been killed in crocodile attacks in Australia in the past 20 years.
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I’ve been there…Port Douglas, Cairns area…Did some diving on the Great Barrier Reef. In ‘96 it was VERY expensive. The people were friendly and the place clean and beautiful.
May 24th, 2008 at 7:46 amI was in Perth, on the west coast, while on a WestPac float when I was in the Corps. Very, very nice people, we had 100’s greeting the ship at the port when we pulled in. Beautiful, clean city, and yes, expensive in comparison to here. That was a good while back though.
May 24th, 2008 at 9:53 am