Saltwater (combed) crocodile. Photo and video of saltwater crocodile. Massive crocodile attack on humans Deadly crocodile attacks on humans

This misconception is replicated not only by guides, but also by various tourist sites. I quote one of them: “... the Chao Phraya River is still flowing for itself - muddy, with yellow water, very wide. Crocodiles in this river are not rare at all, on the contrary. According to statistics, up to 20 people die from their teeth every year in Bangkok.

Scary? Will you now ride river trams along the Chao Phraya River? Do not be afraid. This is outright bullshit.

Who came up with all this, I don't know. There are no such statistics in nature. Perhaps one of the Russian tourists or guides being in a state of light (or medium) alcohol intoxication I saw a two-meter monitor lizard in the Chauphraya River, mistook it for a crocodile and away we go. Rumors spread quickly and grow with new details as they spread. And now, referring to the statistics, you can scare tourists: “In a year in Bangkok, crocodiles eat twenty people!”

Once again, there are no such statistics. Or it is only in the inflamed imagination of the one who came up with it. Crocodiles do not eat people in Bangkok, on the contrary, people in Bangkok eat crocodiles in restaurants.

I must say that it is impossible to find reliable data on the Russian-language Internet about how many people a year eat crocodiles around the world. A lot of yellowish information about cannibal crocodiles in the spirit of horror films (“Crocodile Gustav ate 300 people in Burundi”, “In Uganda, a crocodile destroyed a third fishing village"). But there is no scientific evidence at all.

At the same time, such data is available on the English-speaking Internet. And you can check them out. And find out that the most attacks of crocodiles on people are in Africa, where the evil and terrible Nile crocodile rampages.

But how strange it is not much bigger size combed crocodile (it is he who lives in South-East Asia) is responsible for only 20-30 attacks on humans per year. And this is throughout its habitat from India to Australia. Each such attack is recorded. But for some reason, there are no residents of Bangkok eaten by crocodiles in these statistics at all.

I note that sometimes crocodiles fall into the Chao Phraya River. This happens when they run away from the farms where they are bred. Such cases are periodically recorded during the rainy season, when crocodile farms are flooded. The flood of 2011 was especially memorable in this regard. 120 saltwater crocodiles from a farm in Nonthaburi province have escaped to freedom. Their attacks on children were recorded. The military caught the fugitives, professional hunters on crocodiles and detachments of volunteers. The reptiles that escaped to freedom were returned to their place.

I summarize. Rumors that crocodiles live in the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, eating 20 people a year, are a delusion replicated by illiterate guides and authors of Internet sites. Swimming in this river, however, is not recommended. But not because they live in it scary predators- combed crocodiles. Because the water is very polluted.

It must be said right away that crocodile attacks on people are recorded where they live. large reptiles. Of the 23 species, only 6 are considered dangerous. A mortal danger represent crocodiles with a length of 2.75 meters, since smaller individuals are not able to kill an adult.

However, even the smallest species are capable of inflicting painful bites. They also pose a serious danger to children, since the size of the latter is similar to the size of the prey that small species feed on.

The greatest danger to humans is the Nile and saltwater crocodiles. The former is credited with hundreds of deadly attacks south of the Sahara. The second is deadly to humans in Southeast Asia and Australia.

Less aggressive is the American crocodile. There are only a few deaths with his participation. The black caiman, which lives in the Amazon basin, is also of great danger. The American alligator is also responsible for the death of people. And most of his attacks were recorded in Florida.

count up exact amount crocodile attacks on humans a year is extremely difficult. Many of these places are in remote areas or areas of political unrest. Local authorities do not always report such incidents, and some reports cannot be verified at all.

At the same time, such information is still being collected. So in Zimbabwe for 10 months in 2005, 13 deaths were registered, the culprits of which were toothed reptiles.

The Nile crocodile is considered the thunderstorm of Africa. Every year it kills hundreds, maybe thousands of people. Most of the attacks are not reported, but one of the researchers found that this species attacks 650-745 people a year. Of this number of attacks, 63% are fatal.

It's more than combed crocodile. The latter has 30 attacks per year, of which 50% are fatal. Based on all this, experts conclude that the Nile crocodile is the most dangerous predator for humans, not only among reptiles, but also among all predatory animals on the planet.

Thus, crocodile attacks on humans are quite common. But let's look at a few concrete examples to get a fuller picture of this scourge. So in May 1992, an 18-year-old girl was killed by a crocodile in Malaysia on the Pelaban River. After this incident, the bloodthirsty reptile was shot dead. It turned out to be the largest and oldest ever found in the area.

In January 2001, several attacks on people were reported near the Neyyar reservoir in India. In this case, swamp crocodiles were the perpetrators of the incidents. They are impressive in size, but have never shown aggression towards people before. Experts suggested that among these reptiles a small group with inadequate behavior appeared.

In October 2002 in national park A 23-year-old German student died from the teeth of a crocodile in Australia. She sailed on a small pleasure boat with her sister and a few other tourists. At some point, out of the water appeared huge crocodile. He grabbed the girl sitting at the side and dragged her into the depths.

In September 2005, a 37-year-old British engineer, while vacationing in Australia, was diving near one of the beaches. A crocodile attacked him, and the man died. The victim's body was found.

In March 2006, a 68-year-old professor of medicine at the University of Washington was attacked by a crocodile on the Limpopo River. The professor came to Africa to heal people, but while in the wild, he was killed by a huge reptile.

In February 2009, a 5-year-old boy was attacked by a reptile in northern Australia. After some time, the police killed the crocodile near the scene of the tragedy, and the remains of a child were found in his stomach.

In September 2011, a 6-meter crocodile was killed by hunters and policemen in the southern Philippines. Prior to that, he had made several fatal attacks on people. In particular, he ate a farmer and a 12-year-old girl.

In May 2016, a 46-year-old woman and her 47-year-old close friend went to the beach in the Daintree National Park in Queensland (Australia) in the evening. The man had just recovered from cancer, and the couple were in a rosy mood. People began to swim, but at some point a crocodile appeared from the water, grabbed the woman and dragged her away. The man could do nothing to help his girlfriend. The remains of the unfortunate were found in a dead 4-meter crocodile 3 days after the tragedy.

In September 2017, a 24-year-old journalist was killed by a reptile in Arugam Bay in Sri Lanka. A man was washing his hands by the water when he was suddenly attacked. The crocodile grabbed the journalist and dragged him into the water. The place where the attack took place is known for the largest population of toothy predators.

From the above examples, it can be seen that the attacks of crocodiles on people are systemic in nature. Therefore, you need to be extra careful in areas where dangerous reptiles live. Only in this case can you protect yourself from terrible monsters, which host both in river and sea waters.

The combed crocodile gets its name from the characteristic ridges near the eyes. With age, these ridges stand out more and more noticeably, and in older individuals the entire muzzle is covered with large tubercles. These bumps even gave the crocodile an international scientific name « Crocodylus porosus", from lat. porosus - "nostrilous".

The frightening appearance and huge size of this predator from ancient times instilled fear in the hearts of people. This is the largest modern reptile on the planet, and the largest crocodile. It is also one of the most large predators on the ground. Its size exceeds the size of a polar bear.

inhabits combed crocodile V warm waters Australia, Indonesia, India, Philippines. Formerly found in Seychelles and African east coast(now completely destroyed). Ability saltwater crocodile swimming well and far in the sea allows him to appear in the most unexpected places for a person. So, sometimes this predator is found even off the coast of Japan, where it never lived. Outwardly clumsy and inactive combed crocodiles can travel great distances. For long-distance travel, they use sea currents that pick up the heavy body of a reptile and carry it hundreds of kilometers. Observations of some crocodiles (using satellite transmitters) have shown that adult males can swim almost 600 km in the sea. in 25 days.

Drifting with the current helps the crocodile conserve energy. Sometimes the predator stops in coastal bays and gulfs until it reaches the desired current. Such crocodiles, waiting for their “wave”, can remain near the shore for several days, terrifying local residents. Quite often crocodiles even force out local sharks from bays of the camps. They simply cannot cope with the thick skin of a reptile, and retreat, giving up territory to a stronger predator.

The saltwater crocodile has special glands that help the animal remove excess salt from the body. Therefore, he feels great in salt water, but still prefers to be in warm water most of the time. fresh waters mangroves and calm river lagoons. They are loners by nature. If an uninvited guest enters the territory of a crocodile, there will be a fierce fight. Crocodiles fight to the death. It is not uncommon for the loser to miss a limb, or even die. These are one of the most aggressive animals towards their relatives. Adult males can only put up with the presence of several females on their territory, and then, they can only transfer their company during the mating period.

Being a super predator, the combed crocodile feeds on everything that it can “reach out to”. The diet depends on the habitat. The reptile attacks large land mammals- bulls, buffaloes, horses, etc. Hunts in salt water big fish. There is evidence of successful shark hunting. Young crocodiles feed on other reptiles, fish, invertebrates, and crustaceans. There are also cannibal crocodiles. Easily cracks down on crocodiles of other species - Australian and marsh.

Every year, there are many cases of attacks of marine crocodiles on humans. In Australia, the combed predator suffers from the teeth more people than from the great white shark, but only 1-2 cases per year are fatal (in Malaysia, more than 100 people die from crocodile attacks every year). It is believed that the reptile attacks a person not so much because of hunger, but for defensive purposes - guarding its egg laying or defending the territory. It has been noticed that in places where a person appears often, the aggressiveness of a crocodile is much weaker. The reptile gets used to human society and warns a person in advance about its presence threatening posture. But if a crocodile rarely sees a person, then he will try to attack an uninvited guest.

The most famous case of combed crocodiles attacking a person occurred on February 19, 1945, when almost 1,000 Japanese army soldiers were killed in the water off Ramri Island.

« About a thousand Japanese soldiers tried to repel the attack of the landing of the Royal navy Great Britain ten miles from the coast, in the mangrove swamps, where thousands of crocodiles live. Twenty soldiers were later captured alive, but most were eaten by crocodiles. The hellish situation of the retreating soldiers was aggravated by the huge number of scorpions and tropical mosquitoes that also attacked them, ”the Guinness book says. Naturalist Bruce Wright, participating in the battle on the side of the English battalion, claimed that the crocodiles ate most of the soldiers of the Japanese detachment: “This night was the most terrible of those that any of the soldiers had ever experienced. Scattered in the black swamp slush, bloody, screaming Japanese, crushed in the jaws of huge reptiles, and the strange disturbing sounds of spinning crocodiles represented a cacophony of hell. Such a spectacle, I think, few could observe on earth. At dawn, the vultures flew in to clean up what the crocodiles had left...of the 1,000 Japanese soldiers who entered the Rami swamps, only about 20 were found alive»

The bad reputation of the saltwater crocodile (sometimes justified) was an excuse for uncontrolled hunting of the reptile. In some places of the planet, it was completely destroyed. Currently, there is no crocodile in Thailand and Sri Lanka. The number of predators in India and Vietnam is minimal. Regulated hunting since the late 1970s has prevented the complete destruction of the reptile. Currently, there are enough crocodiles in the wild not to fear for the conservation of the species, but it is still listed in the International Red Book.

Man highly appreciates (and pays for) crocodile skin. A delicacy is fried crocodile meat. For these purposes, crocodiles are bred on special crocodile farms.

Image copyright getty

Alligators are dangerous predators and they do attack people. However, as the observer found out, this rarely ends in the death of a person.

On June 15, 2016, a two-year-old boy was dragged underwater by an alligator in Orlando, Florida.

Approximately 18 hours later, the boy's body "almost undamaged" was found in the water near the scene.

At a press conference, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said this was the first such incident in the region.

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After the tragedy, many began to think about how dangerous alligators are and whether it is worth visiting the places where they live.

We asked experts in the field to help assess the possible risks.

There are only two types of alligators: the Chinese alligator, which usually does not exceed 1.5 meters in length, and the American alligator, which can be much longer.

It is logical to assume that alligators can live in any body of water in Florida

We don't know the size of the alligator that attacked a child in Florida. According to eyewitnesses, it could be from 1.2 to 2 meters in length, that is, relatively small.

The largest American alligator was discovered in Alabama in 2014. Its length was almost 4.5 meters.

Florida is home to a huge number of alligators. Thanks to the conservation program, their number has reached one million.

American alligators live in all 67 counties of Florida, as well as in other states - Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina.

Ecologist Lucas Nell of the University of Georgia in Athens, USA, has been observing alligators for many years. According to him, it is logical to assume that alligators can live in any body of water in Florida.

Indeed, these predators are found in most swamps and rivers.

But, despite their myriad of them, they very rarely attack people.

Lucas Nell explains that alligators are afraid of people. "They have been hunted since the arrival of Europeans in America, and they were on the verge of extinction," he says.

In 2010, a study was conducted of all alligator attacks - from 1928 to 2009.

It turned out that over such a long period in the United States, only 24 people died from alligator teeth, and most of them were in Florida.

There are only 0.06 attacks per 100,000 people per year

Only a few fatal cases have been recorded when the alligator tried to eat the victim.

At the same time, “it is not known whether an attack took place: a person could first drown, and only then get into the teeth of a predator,” the author says. scientific work Rick Langley of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

During this period, Langley counted 567 " dangerous encounters"with predators, as a result of which people received bites.

About 260 victims needed serious medical care while others escaped with minor injuries.

However, considering total of residents of such a densely populated county with alligators, it turns out that there are only 0.06 attacks per 100,000 people per year. This is surprisingly low.

Specialists of the Crocodile Study Group at International Union Conservationists (IUCN) note that out of twenty-three species of crocodiles, only eight are prone to unprovoked attacks on humans.

These aggressive species also include American alligators (which belong to the order of crocodiles, but differ in appearance - Ed.).

Alligators are often less dangerous than crocodiles because they are more selective about their prey.

However, according to the IUCN, American alligator attacks lead to lethal outcome only 6% of the time.

Thus, the risk of dying from alligator teeth is very low, especially when compared to a bloodthirsty Nile crocodile(63%) and combed crocodile (25-50%).

According to a database called CrocBITE, which records almost all cases of crocodile attacks in the world, about 1,000 people become their victims every year, with the vast majority of these deaths occurring in Africa.

Alligators are often less dangerous than crocodiles because they are more selective about their prey.

Simon Pooley, a researcher at the University of London's Burbeck College who works with the IUCN Crocodile Research Group, says crocodiles eat anything that moves, including large mammals.

People are invading natural environment habitats of alligators, and therefore the paths of these two species of living creatures inevitably intersect

Alligators, on the other hand, rarely attack humans, as they feed mainly on fish, birds, other reptiles, and small mammals.

Unfortunately, often children are about the same size as small mammals, and therefore can become a victim of an alligator.

Nevertheless, an alligator attack on a child is quite rare case. As of 2010, attacks on children account for only 13.1%.

At the same time, Langley believes that alligator attacks could increase as "both the population and the size of the alligator population are growing."

In many coastal areas, people encroach on the natural habitat of alligators, and therefore the paths of these two species of living creatures inevitably cross.

Commission for the Protection of Fish and wildlife Florida receives about 16,000 alligator complaints each year.

To coexist with large and dangerous predators, we must understand their behavior.

Its employees can catch an alligator that causes a nuisance to the local population if it exceeds 1.2 meters in size and "poses a threat to people, pets or property."

Smaller alligators are content with small prey and are not dangerous unless a person provokes them.

In 2015, the Commission staff caught 7513 alligators. According to a 2014 report, 66% of nuisance alligators have been eradicated "by lethal means".

Small alligators, as a rule, are simply taken out to another place.

Both Bullet and Nell are confident that these attacks are easy to prevent. But this means that you need to clearly understand all the risks and follow simple rules developed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Nell is convinced that people can live safely around alligators if they use common sense.

"In order to coexist with large and dangerous predators, we must understand their behavior and be extremely vigilant when in close proximity to them," Pooley says.

Everyone should know the rules, especially visitors and tourists. This means giving people as much information as possible.

"It seems to me that people just don't know how widespread alligators are in this area, especially now," says Pooley. "Alligators are especially active at this time of the year."

• Read on English language you can on the website

WITHshark attack fucks,Nowcooler than those that hover around much more dangerous predators, crocodiles.M Waiting for those, the harm from them is much more than from sharks. And yes, they look worse. African guide Hendrik Coetzee, who led a kayak expedition to the Congo, was recently eaten by a crocodile in front of two terrified tourists.

A crocodile attacked Coetzee on a river in the Congo. After the attack and terrible death the guide of two crazed American tourists was transported to the nearest town. No remains of 35-year-old Hendrik Coetzee, who lived in Uganda, have been found. Apparently, the crocodile swallowed the guide whole, without a trace, and did not even choke. Reports of this incident are as terrible as they are hopeless: according to experts, if a shark attack can be somehow fought off, then it is much more difficult to escape from a swift attack of a crocodile. This is confirmed by statistics.

In the world, 15 people become victims of sharks every year. 200 people die from meeting with hippos, 250 from elephants, 1250 die from bee stings, meeting with crocodiles ends tragically for 2500 people. It is not difficult to calculate that crocodiles more dangerous than sharks 168 times! By the way, in fact, the most sinister killers are mosquitoes - as many as two million people die from their bites. But then mosquitoes ... Here are just a few cases of crocodile robbery, which the press has been talking about only recently.

At the end of August, a small African plane crashed in the Republic of the Congo while on a regular flight from the capital of the Congo, Kinshasa, to Bandunda. The crash killed 20 people, including the owner of the airline, 62-year-old Belgian Daniel Filmot, who personally piloted the aircraft. There were no obvious technical problems due to which the plane could crash. It has been suggested that the pilots failed to land the first time, after which they ran out of fuel and the plane crashed to the ground.

According to the British newspaper Daily Telegraph, the only surviving passenger, hospitalized in critical condition in one of the local hospitals, spoke about the causes of the tragedy. As it turned out, there was a crocodile on board the plane. One of the passengers on the flight was transporting the reptile in a sports bag, intending to sell it. During the flight, the animal escaped, causing panic in the cabin of the aircraft.

The plane lost balance and began to fall. Before flying a couple of kilometers to the runway, the plane crashed into a residential building, in which at that moment there was no one by a lucky chance. The report of the commission investigating the incident says: "The frightened stewardess threw herself into the cockpit, followed by the passengers. Despite the desperate efforts of the pilot, the plane lost its balance."

In August, in the theater of marine animals and dolphins "Aquatoria" in Yalta, a crocodile bit a three-year-old child who came with his parents on vacation from Belarusian Brest. The boy received numerous injuries - amputation of the fourth finger of the left hand, incomplete detachment of the third finger, fracture of the metacarpal bones, lacerated wounds from the teeth of a crocodile.

Lauren Failla, a 25-year-old US citizen, was vacationing with her friend in India's Andaman Islands. Once she disappeared while swimming underwater. According to the Associated Press, two days later, the remains of her body were found with terrible lacerations. Local authorities confirmed that she was killed by a crocodile.

In the city of Broome in northwestern Australia, a five-meter combed crocodile in a local wildlife park bit a tipsy 36-year-old man who tried to ride him. The crocodile behaved aggressively and bit the man on the right leg. The man received a serious laceration, but still managed to escape from the park and return to the pub, whose employees called " ambulance The failed rider was hospitalized and operated on.

In the Mexican resort of Cancun, a crocodile attacked an American tourist when he tried to relieve himself in the water of the lagoon. After the attack, the young man was taken to the hospital with multiple bite wounds on his leg and neck. He also suffered a head injury when the reptile hit him on the ground.

In Angola, crocodile attacks have killed at least nine children in just a few days. National Radio of Angola reported that the dead children were between 10 and 16 years old, they became victims of ruthless reptiles when they came to the Keva River to draw water.

Crocodile attack continues. And, apparently, such messages will end only when the entire genus of crocodiles disappears from the planet ...