Crocodiles attack idiots

With some of the crocodile attack stories that occur you would wonder whether the victim was attempting to make a claim for the Darwin awards.

A few days ago a man was attacked by a crocodile after swimming at Bucket Billabong within Kakadu National Park in Australia's Northern Territory. It is a location that is well known and signposted as being crocodile habitat and people are warned not to swim. The victim received deep puncture wounds to his arm and was treated at a nearby clinic in Jabiru.

Also within the last week, an American tourist was attacked by a crocodile near the Mexican tourist resort of Cancun. The victim approached the waters edge to take a leak when he was attacked by the crocodile. He received multiple bites wounds and a head injury but survived to tell the story, sheepishly. The area also reportedly has plenty of crocodile warning signs in place.

This goes to show that although crocodile warning signs are important for crocodile safety and most people take them seriously, there are always a few who think they know better.

Crocodile attacks dog

Earlier this morning we received reports of a crocodile attack on Casuarina beach in Darwin's northern suburbs. A lady reported that a crocodile had attacked and chased her dog while she was walking it along the beach with her two year old daughter. The dog was in shallow water at the time and has survived the attack.

The typically happy natured black labrador-cross apparently thought it was a big game when the crocodile lunged at him in the shallow surf, snapping and attempting to grab him, but he jumped back and bounded around as if to say, you can't catch me.

Meanwhile the mother immediately grabbed her child who was 5 metres away playing in the shallows, who was apparently quite keen to pat the crocodile. Fortunately nobody was injured, but it shows just how close it could have been for the young child. Luckily the crocodile was interested in the dog (as crocodiles usually are). The curious crocodile, obviously not afraid of humans, followed them as they walked back along the beach 100 metres to the Northern Territory Surf Life Saving Centre.

Saltwater Crocodiles are quite common along this beach and many will eventually get caught in croc traps as they attempt to move into freshwater creeks in Darwin Harbour. They can also move along the coast several kilometres during the night and appear in new locations undetected. However most people may not be aware of this as very few people have ever seen a crocodile off the coast in Darwin.