A few more picts of Australian saltwater crocs.


Big Freshie

Snacks


Black-necked Stork



bull and calf

Sir:

How big are the biggest ones?


Jordan

Jordan,
We saw several in the 14-15 foot range. This was in Sampan Creek west of Kakadu N.P.
We had a depredation permit for a croc that was eating cattle at a Station about 100 miles away. IIRC, it was 14'8".
Some apparently get to 17' or even 18', but that would be a rare croc.

A tanned hide, sans head.


Lotsa room in belly

This is a picture of "Sweetheart", a rogue croc that attacked 15 or so boats in the NT during the 1970's before being captured. It died shortly after capture. Five meters.

My view is the entire species should be turned into gun cases or shoes with any remaining kept in parks from which they will never escape as the park is in the middle of Saudi Arabia.

2 weeks from today i will be hunting the buggers in the Zambezi Delta. can't wait!!

What sort of equipment will you use as regards smoke poles? Howzabout the hunting technique - I understand these beasties are often second-third shift operators who work at night. On the other hand I wouldn't want to face a bunch of those things, nail one, and try to recover the carcass at night as you might be "recovered" yourself.

In Africa, stalking them on land is very difficult, but lots of fun. Not only are their senses acute, but they have had many years to know what every rock and tree looks like, and the old buggers can see you peeking around quite easily. They also usually have a bunch of birds with them while they are sunning, and the birds make it even more difficult.
Getting them from a boat can be quite exciting, as you are generally shooting as the boat is moving in toward the croc at speed. Sometimes you can end uo with a croc coming off the bank almost into the boat.
At night, the younger ones can be approached with a light and speared from a boat.
In Australia, they can only be trapped and then shot by a permit holder.

croc with water buffalo it had killed

South American Caiman

I guess there is an explanation for the "trap first" part but I can't imagine there is a major effort to try and preserve the rats in the wild when it can be done in parks (preferably surrounded by minefields). There's nothing they eat that we don't eat and we and our dogs and cats, are at the top of the food chain. I would love to feed some canned croc for pussycats to my felines.

Here's some from my collection Steve. This one was taken in Darwin Harbour, only a little fella but very sneaky

This one below was taken at Shady Camp, not long after I nearly ran over a 5 meter croc in my little 4 meter tinny (in 70cm of water )