Sea Life crocodile ambushes keepers - www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk

27 April 2010

Crocodile keepers at Great Yarmouth Sea Life Centre have discovered a gap in their training that's playing havoc with their nerves!

All the safe-handling and health and safety tips failed to prepare them for the fact that crocodiles…it seems…can have very individual personalities.

So it has proved with Ntombi and Anyang, a pair of African dwarf crocodiles who in spite of being sisters of identical age are as different as chalk and cheese.

And whereas one of them seems more afraid of the humans than they are of her, the other often finds a cunning hiding place from which to make a sudden and somewhat alarming appearance!

“Anyang is lively and quite timid,” said displays supervisor Christine Pitcher, “and when we have to enter the enclosure she retreats to a far corner.

“Ntombi on the other hand usually goes into hiding before we arrive so that we're constantly expecting to be ambushed.”

If not in hiding, she will generally be in her favourite spot beside the base of a tree, and will stubbornly dig in her claws and resist all efforts to dislodge her.

Christine and her colleagues have to enter the crocodile enclosure every day to clean up, and although Ntombi has never actually attacked or tried to bite anyone…they can't quite put her gaping jaws and rows of jagged teeth out of their minds.

“I guess because crocodiles are such primitive reptiles we expected them to have very similar and predictable behaviour patterns,” said Christine.

“It's been a bit of a revelation discovering how different they are, and in Ntombi's case, how stubborn and sometimes how sly and cunning they can be.”

Though they don't really expect Ntombi to become aggressive, it's best to take no chances with crocodiles.

So the rule is that cleaning out the crocodile enclosure is a two-person job…and one cleans while the other watches for Ntombi, armed with a broom.

In spite of, or perhaps because of their nuances, Ntombi and Anyang have quickly become members of the Sea Life centre's growing family.

“We may be nervous about the daily cleaning job,” said Christine, “but I think we all love Ntombi and Anyang just as much as we do our penguins or any other creature at the Centre.”

SC man arrested for attempting to sale alligator - news.sc

(No date given)

Apparently, a SC man thought he’d try to get a little something for an alligator he caught near his apartment building in Bluffton, SC.

The man reportedly caught the 3-foot alligator and then kept it in his bathtub for a period of time. He then attempted to sale the alligator for $30. South Carolina Department of Natural Resources officers observed the attempted sale and arrested the man. He was charged with unlawful possession and sale of an alligator out of season.

He could face $2500 fines for each offense. He was released from jail after an overnight stay.

I have to pass comment on this one as it has come from a genuine news website, but the editor must have been on a tea break when this was posted. I'm not sure on the use of the term '...sale the alligator...'

Did he want to put a sail on it and set it free?

And by the by, $30 for a 3 foot gator??? $10 a foot, seems a bit too cheap really, maybe it fell off the back of a truck...

And even though it states the gator was 3 foot, they publish the story with this photo

(I'm no expert, but I suspect this one is just a little more then 3 foot...)

Joke...

What do you get if you cross a crocodile with a camera?

A snapshot!

A man walks into a bar...

A man walked into a Florida bar with his alligator and asked the bartender:

"Do you serve lawyers here?"

"Sure."

"Good. One beer for me and a lawyer for my alligator."

Commitment

At an army training camp in Florida, the Seargent is giving a talk: "The main quality we look for in this army is commitment and this is what I call commitment."

An alligator came in the room and bit the seargents penis. It stayed there for about a 10 seconds then the seargent poked it in the eyes and kicked it off.

"Now who's ready to show their commitment?" said the Seargent.

A man put his hand up and said "I will, but promise you won't poke me in the eyes."

Tourist drives her car into croc-infested East Alligator River - www.eturbonews.com

15 July 2009

A WOMAN from NSW drove her car into a croc-infested river on the fringe of Kakadu National Park after confusing a boat ramp for a road crossing. Her four-wheel-drive became submerged in the East Alligator River, about 300 kilometres east of Darwin, last Thursday. The mishap has prompted police to issue a warning about the “number and size of crocodiles” in remote NT waterways, and the need for drivers to take extra care in the outback. Police from the remote community of Oenpelli were contacted about 9am (CST) on July 10. They were told the tourist had scrambled from the sinking vehicle and made her way out of the croc-infested waterway. ”She managed to get out of the car once she realised she had gone the wrong way and her car was going to sink,” an NT police spokeswoman said. ”She did have to wade through the water but she didn't have to swim.” The woman had mistaken the boat ramp for Cahill's Crossing, which cars use to cross the East Alligator River and move between Kakadu and Arnhem Land. A team of rangers and police officers was immediately organised to remove the white Troop Carrier, which had become surrounded by crocs near the down stream boat ramp. Photographs of the 4WD recovery, released by NT police, show a large reptile in the water only metres from the vehicle. ”When they did the recovery they did spot crocs in the area and I believe that's (one of them) in the photograph,” the spokeswoman said. A local government grader was used in the rescue of the car, as well as support from a boat used by Kakadu Park Rangers. ”Jabiru and Oenpelli police along with park rangers coordinated the recovery of the vehicle and animal control,” a police statement said. Brevet Sergeant Ben Higgins said the lucky escape should act as a warning to people about the dangers of bush driving. ”When travelling through the NT it's their responsibility to research the area and be aware of the extreme road conditions, especially that of remote areas,” he said. ”All water crossings should be considered extremely dangerous and exceptional care should be taken to avoid similar incidents such as these, especially considering the number and size of crocodiles that inhabit remote water ways.”

Student brings live alligator on to train - chroniclelive.co.uk

15 July 2009

CUSTOMS officials making a routine check on a train travelling from Sweden to Norway were stunned to discover a live alligator onboard.

The 75cm reptile was hidden in a tube inside a well-ventilated bag and was found to be the pet of a 22-year-old student who had been studying in Poland and just wanted to take the pet home to his native Norway. Vets will now decide the alligator’s fate.

It’s not the first time people have tried to smuggle unusual animals from one country to another. Last year Australian customs officials uncovered a package on its way to Sydney which contained five pythons and two venomous tarantulas.

Also last year, two cheeky 11-year-olds smuggled four baby tortoises back from their holidays in Tunisia. Customs officials in the holiday resort, and back in Edinburgh airport all missed the reptiles, and they were only discovered by the children’s mums when they unpacked their cases.