Fishermen survive crocodile attack - theaustralian.com.au

12 December 2011

TWO fishermen in Darwin have narrowly escaped being killed by a crocodile after a rising tide left them stranded in mangroves.

The men, aged 30 and 22, were fishing at Buffalo Creek on Darwin's fringe last night but when they decided to head home they realised that the tide had risen and they were stranded on a mudbank.

They decided to trudge through the knee-deep water to get back to their vehicle when they became aware that a 3m crocodile was stalking them, police said.

"It lunged at them, so they climbed up a mangrove tree," said a police spokeswoman.

The younger man fell into the water but managed to quickly scamper back up the tree again.

Using his mobile phone one of the fishermen alerted authorities, who rushed to the scene.

The men were rescued by boat and the crocodile was shot at to scare it away, although it is uncertain whether it was killed.

Wildlife ranger Tom Nichols said at least one of the men seemed to be from overseas, and the pair were unfamiliar with local conditions.

"They weren't aware of the big tides, which were 7m tides last night, and also the conditions in that area, how fast the water comes in and out," Mr Nichols said.

There had been a report of a large crocodile in the area on Friday, he said.

CROCKED... NOT TO MENTION STUNG, BITTEN AND SHOCKED - dailystar.co.uk

11 December 2011

TWO people needed hospital treatment for crocodile bites last year – and two for the effects of zero gravity.

The oddball complaints are the weirdest in a list of strange reasons people went to UK accident and emergency units last year.

As well as the croc and alligator bite victims, 17 people were hurt by a nip from a venomous spider and 34 by a jellyfish or other sea creature.

Another four were attacked by scorpions, 58 were seen after contact with a poisonous snake or lizard and 1,014 stung by hornets.

The hospital admission statistics from 2010/11 also revealed two patients who needed treatment “for an illness resulting from staying too long in a weightless environment” – believed to be people who have taken zero-gravity space-simulation flights.

Another 22 people were hit by lightning, the same number who needed treatment after their nightwear caught fire.

Two people were hurt in earthquakes, seven in volcanic eruptions before being brought back to the UK for treatment and ten were injured in avalanches.

Rat bites put 24 people in A&E and 325 were pricked by plants. Thirteen people needed treatment after accidentally suffocating themselves in bed.

More than 4,000 people were treated for injuries sustained while using sports equipment, while 6,600 hurt themselves in falls from ladders.

A thirsty 1,968 came to grief with a hot drink, while 4,200 needed help after skiing, roller-skating, skateboarding or ice-skating accidents.

And 350 cyclists were treated in hospital after crashing into other bike riders.

In total, casualty staff treated more than one million people last year, among them 94,019 injured after “slipping, tripping or stumbling”.

There were almost 1,000 shooting victims but just 176 were classified as being “attacks” with the other injuries being accidental or self-inflicted.

Almost 5,000 people with stabbing injuries were treated by medics as well as 3,288 who were attacked with a blunt instrument.

But be careful while you read this because more than 13,000 people – one person every 40 minutes – ended up needing hospital treatment for falling off a chair and twice that number were hurt falling out of bed.

Crocodile by Dan - logopond.com

This is great - no story to go with it, but just love the clever way 'Dan' has designed this…

Rwanda: Man Feared Killed By Crocodile - allafrica.com

25 November 2011

Fishermen in Rilima Sector, Bugesera District, yesterday morning, found the body of a man on the banks of Lake Kidogo. It is believed the unidentified man was the victim of a crocodile attack.

Jean Damascene Nyandwi, a fisherman who first saw the remains, told The New Times that he was on his routine work when he bumped into the body.

"There is no doubt that this person was mauled by crocodiles. There are signs that he was trapped some days ago," Nyandwi narrated.

The fisherman added that this is the second time such an incident had taken place in recent times.


"Crocodiles have not been a threat on this lake like it is on Lakes Rumira and Gashanga. It is scary because this may be the beginning of ugly incidents," he said.


The body was mutilated beyond recognition. Some residents, however, said that reports from neighbouring Gashora Sector indicated that a resident had gone missing.


Other residents said that fishing attracts people to the lake.


The Executive Secretary of the Sector, Gaspard Gasirabo, confirmed the incident and advised residents to be on the alert, warning that crocodiles from other lakes may be moving to Kidogo.


"This incident should serve as a warning to residents; otherwise we are most likely to experience many other cases."

Crocodile Washes Up in Krasnodar - themoscowtimes.com

24 November 2011

Russia is not a place to meet crocodiles in the wild, but this week, one specimen was fished out of the Kuban River in the southern Krasnodar region — dead.


The reptile was discovered by employees of a local rowing club who were cleaning up after a race, Interfax reported Tuesday, citing a club representative.


The 1.2-meter-long crocodile was apparently dead for some time because its hide was "damaged by rats," the representative was cited as saying.


The animal is apparently the same that was spotted by rowers in Kuban back in August. A hunt was launched at the time, but produced no results.


The cause of the croc's death remains unclear. Krasnodar Mayor Yevgeny Yevlanov called in August to capture it alive, name it and hand it over to a local zoo.


No explanation was offered for why the crocodile appeared in Krasnodar.

73 croc attacks on humans in last two decades - theborneopost.com

23 November 2011


KUCHING: Seventy-three crocodile attacks on human beings have been recorded since 1990, 33 of them fatal, says Special Functions Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Adenan Satem.

“The increase in crocodile population has subsequently led to conflicts with humans, especially those depending on rivers for their livelihood and transportation,” Adenan said in his winding-up speech yesterday.

He said the government had taken proactive steps to resolve the issue by implementing educational and awareness programmes with the local communities, putting up crocodile warning signs at sites known to be infested with crocodiles and culling operation at rivers with high crocodile population.

“The capture and culling of crocodiles from their natural habitats are part and parcel of the wildlife management, yet these are often viewed negatively by certain groups of people,” he said.

Adenan said the recent International Crocodile Conference (ICC) in Kuching was organised to share and gather ideas on resolving the human-crocodile conflict.

Among the resolutions of the ICC are to come up with a standard and monitoring programme and to establish a comprehensive database; to determine the strategy to downgrade crocodile status from Convention on International Trade in Engendered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) Appendix I to CITES Appendix II; to prepare sufficient allocation for long term management and monitoring crocodile population; to prepare safety guidelines for river users and to ensure that crocodile management plan would benefit local communities.

Alligator topples Angry Birds in quest for billion gamers - articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com

24 November 2011

PORTLAND: Where's My Water?," the new mobile game from Walt Disney, stars Swampy, an alligator who lives in an underground sewer.

The googly eyed reptile likes to lounge around in his subterranean bathtub while he scrubs his back with a brush. Players swipe their fingers across an Apple iPhone screen to guide water into his tub while dodging toxic sludge and collecting rubber duckies as prizes.

With the 99-cent application, also available for Apple's iPad tablet, the House of Mickey is attempting to do something it has never done before: spin a multimillion-dollar franchise out of a character that made his debut on a 3.5-inch screen.

So far the Swampy experiment is going swimmingly. Following its Sept. 22 release, "Where's My Water?" quickly jumped to the top of the Apple App Store's paid applications chart, displacing the record-setting "Angry Birds" game from the No. 1 spot for three weeks.

The logic behind Disney's new release is simple. A movie takes three to five years and hundreds of millions of dollars to make, and as with "Mars Needs Moms," Disney's big theatrical release this past spring, success is hardly guaranteed.

The cost of a mobile game runs in the hundreds of thousands. It took a crew of seven people seven-and-a-half months to produce "Where's My Water?" If Swampy becomes a hit with kids, a follow-up movie could have a ready base of fans eager to buy tickets.

"This is a very, very cost-effective way to develop characters," said Tim Nollen, an analyst at Macquarie Capital USA Inc. in New York. "It's a new way of doing things."

About 52% of kids 8 and younger have used a mobile device for games and other activities, according to a recent survey of 1,384 parents by Common Sense Media Inc.

A new generation of Disney fans "is growing up, and this is their main platform," said Bart Decrem, senior vice president and general manager of Disney Mobile, a 150-person unit. "My gut feeling is, over the next few years, someone will create a game with a billion gamers on it. We want to be that company."

Disney already has Swampy's career plotted out. A 12- episode animated series will air on Disney.com and on Google Inc. (GOOG)'s Youtube sometime in the first quarter of 2012, part of a deal that will have the two companies spend as much as $15 million on co-branded content.

A book and a movie featuring the cute green gator could follow, Decrem says.

(I love this game! - Jenn)