Bog, at first they were guessing nearly a century until they saw him open his mouth and had all his teeth - a croc that old would be nearly toothless. They then estimated that he was "only" 60 and get this, STILL GROWING! Gustav has to be seen to be believed... I hope some poacher didn't get him - more likely the other way around! As to baiting, while I have never hunted crocs, it seems that it works well with the younger ones due to their gluttonous appetites but the big mature croc's seem to be a lot more wary. This was the problem they had catching Gustav, he simply wouldn't go for the bait, instead they kept catching "babies", only 8 to 11 feet! I would think that a combination of the two techniques would yield the best result.



Toolmaker

Gentlemen, saw a show Sunday afternoon that might interest you. It was about a giant Killer Croc in one of the Tributaries of Lake Tanginika and the attempts to capture him alive by some French scientists - He was known to the locals as "Gustav" and the footage they showed was of a genuine monster. They estimated him to be north of 6 meters! One of the local game wardens claimed to have witnessed him killing a Hippo... Now here's the freaky part, with one day left for the scientists, Gustav disappeared and the village hasn't reported any losses to Croc's in six month's... If he's alive, I'd love to see the trophy someone would make of him.

Toolmaker

Did some checking, the title is "Capturing the Killer Croc" by National Geographic, supposedly he killed over 200 people...

Toolmaker

WOW, 6 meters! If that is an accurate estimate that is a nice sized croc....any guesses as to its age?
BTW when you bait a croc, do you wait by the bait immediately or give it a day or so? I always believed the best way to shoot one was to walk the riverbanks in the morning when they warm up...

Boghossian,

I think you would generally give the bait some time - at least overnight, which is what we intended to do. But, we didn't make it back to the bait for 48 hours because we got side-tracked by a herd of buffalo and the bait site was about a five hour drive from camp. There were still plenty of crocs present when we arrived.

Depending on terrain, the stalking method is probably a lower percentage approach for a big croc because they're so wary.

Toolmaker
Happy birthday

Cheers,

Andr�