Aussie chainsaw croc runs amok

BBC News ^ | 04/28/06

[TigerLikesRooster]

Aussie chainsaw croc runs amok

 

Saltwater crocs are known to attack boats with outboard motors

A crocodile in northern Australia has chased a storm-clearance worker up a tree and made off with his chainsaw.

The 4.4m (14.5ft) saltwater crocodile called Brutus apparently took exception to the noise of the saw.

The worker was clearing a tree that fell on the crocodile enclosure at the Corroboree Park Tavern, 80km (50 miles) east of the northern city of Darwin.

Brutus chewed on the chainsaw for 90 minutes, reducing it to pieces. Neither man nor beast was injured.

Northern Australia has an estimated 100,000 saltwater crocodiles.

Et chew Brutus

Worker Freddy Buckland was cutting a tree that had fallen as a result of a recent tropical cyclone.

Peter Shappert, the tavern's owner, said the crocodile jumped from the water and sped 20ft to the tree.

"It must have been the noise... I don't think he was actually trying to grab Freddy, but I'm not sure. He had a fair go at him... I think he just grabbed the first thing he could and it happened to be the chainsaw."

Tavern co-owner Linda Francis said: "Fred virtually gave him the chainsaw, shoved it at him.

"It was still going and he took the chainsaw onto the ground and proceeded to smash it and it stalled. The crocodile didn't cut himself, just broke a few teeth."

Mr Shappert said the saw was destroyed.

"He chewed on the chainsaw for about an hour-and-a-half, then we finally got it out."

Saltwater crocodiles are known to attack small boats, apparently disturbed by the sound of outboard motors.

[najida]

You have an animal that can fight a chainsaw and win.
THAT is scary.

[Waverunner]

Eco-tourist nightmare, croc with a chain saw.
What would Chuck Norris do?

[kinoxi]

generally a good idea to run from the only surviving dinosaurs if unprotected

[Waverunner]

You haven't played Doom , have you?

[dfwgator]

Crikey!

[joesnuffy]

I don't know what Chuck would do
But I do know he would walk away
...in a new pair of boots.

[najida]

I've played Diablo II...
And I've been around my Grumpy Bachelor Brother when he's had too many beers ;)

[RebelBanker]

IDCHOPPERS?

[Sax]

Anyone seen Brutus' squeeky-toy? Brutus, go get your toy, go get it boy, where's your toy?

[Hammerhead]

Thats "WWCND"

[dfwgator]

What would Steve Erwin do?

[mikrofon]

Timor Chainsaw Massacre

[Grampa Dave]

I would like to buy one that hates weed blowers.

[kinoxi]

not touch a 14 and a half foot croc

[Jonah Hex]

"Groovy..."

[Keyga8tor]

Saw some in Darwin once. Stay away from the "Logs with eyes"!

[ahayes]

Ok, I'll strike "chainsaw" from my list of "Weapons to Use Against 14.5 Foot Crocodiles."

Right now I still have "rocket launcher," "claymore," and "tactical warhead" listed.

[Just another Joe]

Right now I still have "rocket launcher," "claymore," and "tactical warhead" listed.

You might want to strike "Tactical Warhead" from that list also, unless you plan on joining the croc.

[Panzerfaust]

This guy ain't giving up his chainsaw....

[ahayes]

The plan for that one goes something like, "Take off and nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure."

[quikdrw]

That's easy. A round-house to the croc would end it.

[r9etb]

It's fun to speculate on the evolutionary reason for why crocodiles would attack the noise of a chainsaw.

My personal opinion is that dinosaur farts must have sounded like that.....

[kinoxi]

chasing dinosaur rear ends, freud would have a field day with that

[reagan_fanatic]

I would like to buy one that hates weed blowers.

Can we get one that hates rap music? I would love to sic 'em on those rice burners with the fart cans on the tailpipe..

[Mazda3Fan]

Salties are extremely aggressive, they make the Florida crocodiles and alligators I grew up with seem like little fuzzy puppy dogs.

[null and void]

Brutus chewed on the chainsaw for 90 minutes, reducing it to pieces. Neither man nor beast was injured.

YIKES!

[null and void]

It's fun to speculate on the evolutionary reason for why crocodiles would attack the noise of a chainsaw.

I know that in Florida the rumble of Space Shuttle launches sets off a mating orgy among the 'gators.

I'd guess that some component of the sound of a chainsaw or outboard motor engine sounds like a rival male's mating call to a salty.

[RebelBanker]

Until I get a BFG9000, I will steer clear of 14.5 foot salties!

[packrat35]

During WWII, crocs killed almost 1000 Japanese at one time.

Crocodiles are the largest of reptiles. They can measure well over twenty feet in length, they account for more human deaths than any other large animal, killing around a thousand people in Africa annually. The largest animal attack in recorded history occurred during World War Two, when Allied troops besieged 1000 Japanese troops in a swamp overnight. During the night, the Allies heard terrible screams, and when they entered the swamp on the following day, only twenty Japanese were to be found; the rest had been killed and eaten by crocodiles during the night.

[Grampa Dave]

Where I live, the weed blowers make more noise and are more prevalent than the loud rap music on car wheels.

[VOATNOW1]

You are right Mazda. Salties are possibly the meanest things on the planet. The only other crocs that come close to Salties are found in Madagasgar IIRC. I think I would rather swim with a Great White or an Orca then be near a Salt Water Croc.

[TNdandelion]

LOL

Actually, the noise probably sounds (to them) like another croc invading their territory--so they defend. At our local zoo, there is a croc pair that will make this territorial "burp" sound anytime it thunders outside or if someone (not saying who) gently thumps the glass barrier to make a deep "boom" sound.

Your explanation, however, is more fun!

[rawhide]

During WWII, crocs killed almost 1000 Japanese at one time.

Here is more to the story you referred to:

The incident took place on the night of February 19, 1945, as nearly one thousand retreating Japanese soldiers tried to make their escape through the mangrove swamp separating Ramree Island from the coast of Burma, 18 miles away.

The naturalist Bruce Wright was a member of the British forces who had trapped the Japanese on Ramree. He was sitting on a marine launch grounded on the slimy mire of a channel running through the labyrinth of the swamp and his account of the night outlines the grisly scene:

"That night was the most horrible that any member of the M.L. [marine launch] crews ever experienced. The scattered rifle shots in the pitch black swamp punctured by the screams of wounded men crushed in the jaws of huge reptiles, and the blurred worrying sound of spinning crocodiles made a cacophony of hell that has rarely been duplicated on earth. At dawn the vultures arrived to clean up what the crocodiles had left...Of about one thousand Japanese soldiers that entered the swamps of Ramree, only about twenty were found alive."

[absolootezer0]

i'd go ahead and add .45-70, .50BMG, and other such shoulder cannons to the list. but i think a claymore would be a toothpick for one of them crocs- unless you're gonna use it to prop the croc's mouth open for better delivery of a rocket.

[rawhide]

Here is a link to another story on the 'croc' incident. You need to page down to 'Death on Ramfee Island'.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/massacres_pacific.html

[absolootezer0]

what about this guy...

[Flavius Josephus]

I didn't know Fl had crocs. I thought they had only gators.

[JoeSixPack1]

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/UW157

[null and void]

I think he meant a claymore mine.

This:

Not this:

[absolootezer0]

OH! that makes alot more sense :)

[null and void]

It would take a brave man indeed to play St. George with a sword and a real dragon...

[absolootezer0]

yup.. big difference between a croc, and the snakes and bats i usually wage battle against with my gurkha.

[null and void]

It takes a brave man to tackle a snake with a pickle...

[absolootezer0]

no.. not a gerkin.. a gurkha..

[null and void]

Ooops...

[RikaStrom]

ROFLMAO!

[ahayes]

LOL! Yes, I meant the claymore mine. I don't think I could swing a claymore very effectively.