Salties



Crocs are stealthy hunters

 Since we haven’t been able to see crocodiles in the wild during our time up here, we decided to spend a day at a crocodile farm/zoo.  I enjoyed the place we chose to visit because they were big on education, and not just crazy shows.  They also took in wayward crocs from the surrounding area that had been causing trouble.  One thing I noticed right away is that every employee had a healthy respect for the crocodiles, almost bordering on fear.  We took a boat tour through their lagoon and the lady driving the boat said two of the big males got in a big fight right next to the boat the day before (it’s breeding season) and she didn’t know what to do besides scream.  She seemed nervous throughout our boat ride, even though it was fairly tame.  We’ve been to alligator places in Florida and Colorado where the handlers would get super close and the alligators were so well fed they didn’t try anything.  I got the feeling here that the saltwater crocodiles weren’t that way.   They are entirely unpredictable.  We saw freshwater crocs too, and the handlers had no problem being in the pen with them.  Not the case with the salties.  We heard lots of stories during the shows of people in the area who had been killed and eaten by crocs.  As they told us, “crocs aren’t stupid; they eat stupid people.”  Basically the ones who had been killed were swimming in known croc-infested waters.

A face only a mother could love!

There are two species of crocodiles in Australia, the saltwater and the freshwater.  The salties range throughout the Indo Pacific regions, with the largest ones being about 5-6 meters.  They can live to 100 years of age and have over 60 teeth - in a lifetime they can wear through 100 sets.  Their jaws have a force of several tons (we heard them snap shut and it was impressive – not something you want to be the last thing you ever hear!).  Crocodile’s stomachs are as big as a human head and they have the most advanced heart of any living animal on earth.  They can jump six feet in the air from water.  They are active 24 hours a day while most other reptiles rest once the sun goes down (I thought this was interesting).  Large crocs can live off their body fat for a year.  They don’t do much feeding underwater – they mostly prey on what is on the shore.   They were around before, during, and after the dinosaurs, and were almost wiped out here in Australia in the 1960s before laws were passed protecting them.  It is currently illegal to kill a croc in the wild.

We met a few interesting crocs and learned each of their stories.  We met Paul, who had eaten several cattlemen’s dogs and had the annoying habit of biting the heads off of cattle as they were drinking from the river.  Then there was Sollie, who was named after the dog he ate on New Year’s Day.  A group of local children were getting ready to swim in the local swimming hole and poor Sollie (the dog) was the first in the water (bad for Sollie but lucky for the kids!).  We learned about one legendary large croc named Sweetheart that used to attack boats in the area.  He didn’t go for the canoes or kayaks, but instead would attack motorboats, flipping them over and putting all the passengers in the water!  Can you imagine?  Yikes!  While everyone was swimming for shore Sweetheart would be busy attacking and dismantling the motor!  I guess he had a thing for motors.

A cassowary up close

Other cool things we saw at the croc place were the cassowary birds.  We had seen one in the wild while in Daintree National Park, but it was nice to see them up close.  We heard them call to their handler, and if that sound isn’t prehistoric, I don’t know what is.  Such an amazing bird.  We also saw the death adder snake and the taipan snake, both extremely venomous.  A handler brought out the taipan snake during the snake show – it was hard to sit still while watching him (wouldn’t want to be in the front row!). We learned that ounce per ounce, the taipan’s venom is the third deadliest (to us) in the world.  Number two is a frog in Columbia, and number one is the Irukandji jellyfish (box jellyfish) here in Oz.  We read in the newspaper that a dog in the area was recently killed by a taipan bite.  Its owner got a glimpse of the snake after it bit the dog, otherwise they wouldn’t have known what killed it (dogs have it rough over here!). The snake handler told us that two people get killed by snakes in Australia each year (he went on to explain that the real number is 1.8, which equals one Australian and one Tasmanian – wonder what the Tazzies think of that joke!  J).  Interestingly, it’s illegal to kill snakes in Australia. 

Yikes!

We had fun checking out the salties (while protected) and learning all about them.  On a final note, I'll leave you with a picture of Daron having too much fun with a croc!