Before I left South Africa 3 years ago, I bought myself a series of video cassettes from Time life about nature. So over the Easter weekend, I scratched them out and decided to get a African �Fix�. The first one was on spiders, very interesting, and then I watched the crocodile one, I think it was filmed in the Masai Mara� The beginning of the documentary starts with a photo shot over Africa on a old map, in the middle of the map was a drawn beast, with writing � Here be dragon�. The documentary is about the crocs and the wildebeest, these wildebeest sure do take a hammering from the crocs, but as they say, one will sacrifice itself to save the rest. It is a absolute slaughter, an one thing I didn�t know is that once the crocs have had enough. They will just let the wildebeest pass. In the one footage a wildebeest stood on a croc in the water, the croc took a hold of the animal on the hind quarter, and pushed it to the side. The croc let go and the wildebeest limped up the river bank.

I was always under the impression that the crocs will catch there prey and stash it under a log so it would rotten up, and make it easier to tear apart. This documentary proves that theory different. The crocs just team up and rip the carcase apart.

It is brutal, but I would love to see the wildebeest migartion in real life.

Wildebeest Migration

Migartion Path

Like you I have only seen the films of the crocs wolfing everything down on the spot. Then you hear the stories about them catching someone and both just disappearing.

The story goes, as you say, about the crocs burying their prey and then eating it later when it ripens up some. I find that hard to believe unless the croc sits there and guards against all the other crocs that probably wouldn't be so picky.

This ripening thing...I don't know if that is really true or just an old wives tale.

The flatdogs in the Grummeti River Tanzania kill the wildebeest as they cross and just pile them all up the bank. Certainly they kill far more than they could possibly eat and I guess the other predators & scavangers just pile and and make the most of it.

I saw the end of the migration there a few years ago which was impressive as hell and a year or two ago my wife went off to Kenya whilst I was hunting in the Burigi and she caught the peak of the migration there..... the photographs are simply fabulous.

An interesting thing about the migration is that lots of people book into the luxury lodges to watch it and then find they can't stand the never-ending noise of the wildebeest and after a day or two they decide to leave early. wierd huh?

I know crocs have a hard time tearing into a freshly dead hippo. That is likely the genesis of the rumor that they like their food aged.