Posted on 10/01/2021 10:20:47 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Croc bites drone at Darwin wildlife park during 'Crocodile Territory' documentary filming
It's the most powerful bite in the animal kingdom.
An ABC News drone took the brunt of the bite force when a saltwater crocodile leapt up and plucked it from midair while ABC cameraman Dane Hirst was filming in Darwin.
The freak event occurred during production of an ABC News multiplatform documentary, Crocodile Territory, which airs tonight.
The documentary marks the 50th anniversary of the ban on hunting the ancient reptiles in the Northern Territory.
Mr Hirst said he hadn't long been filming when he heard the kind of sound you only hear when a saltwater croc snaps its jaws shut at breakneck speed.
"I set the drone up over a small lagoon at Crocodylus Park, and all the crocs were really skittish," he said.
"But there was one crocodile in particular that was holding its ground and really eyeballing the drone.
A crocodile with its head out of the surface of a lagoon is seen from above. One particular croc started to take an interest in the ABC's flying camera.(ABC News) "So I thought, great, I'll use this fellow, he's in a stationary spot. I can get some decent shots of him.
"I lined the drone up and moved over the top of him, and as I was doing that I looked up towards the lagoon and saw a crocodile vertical out of the water and heard the great clamping noise of a crocodile's jaws coming together."
A crocodile is seen with it jaw open leaping toward the camera lens. The ABC cameraman said he heard the loud snap of a croc's jaw.(ABC News) When Mr Hirst looked up, the drone had disappeared.
"I looked down at my controller and it was a blank screen and no connection," he said.
While Mr Hirst missed seeing the croc take the drone down, it was witnessed by a young child who was on a tour of the park.
Ripples and reflections are seen on the surface of a lagoon. When he looked up, the cameraman's drone was disappearing into the murky depths of the lagoon. (ABC News) The grandfather of the child approached the cameraman and confirmed to Mr Hirst what he said he already knew deep down.
"I thought, oh wow, that was a brand new drone, and this is going to be a really hard one to explain to the boss," he said.
The drone had been purchased for the shoot and was on its maiden flight when it met its unfortunate demise.
Crocodylus Park's Emily Broomham said the drone had flown over a lagoon of large crocodiles up to five metres long before encountering some "very cheeky girls".
"The little crocs took it down and won the day," she said.
"They're such opportunists and they do look out for something different."
The drone was believed to have ended up in the crocodile's stomach or at the bottom of the lagoon, but was found mangled and full of bite holes on the bank two weeks later.
"We were going to have a look when we [drained] the lagoon … and we were all kind of joking and laughing about it wondering what kind of condition we would find it in," Ms Broomham said.
"Some cheeky croc had obviously found it on the bottom and thought they'd have a bit of a go at it again and they've dragged it up onto land for us which was awesome because it was just nice and easy to fetch out."
The return of crocodile rule
Fifty years ago, crocodiles had been shot to near extinction in the Northern Territory. Now the apex predators again dominate the waterways, raising questions about their coexistence with humans.
The drone had been damaged beyond repair but the card with the footage survived, enabling the team to retrieve what had been shot.
"Luckily for me at the ABC we've got some very clever technicians and they managed to retrieve the footage," Mr Hirst said.
The drone now hangs in the ABC News crew room as a cautionary tale.
Crocodile Territory will screen on the ABC News Channel at 8.30pm AEST tonight and be released on ABC iView and the ABC YouTube channel.
The digital version of the story can be found here.
More powerful than a hippo bite?
More powerful than a hippo bite?
While working at a refinery in Port Arthur, TX, myself and another guy took a jonboat across the bayou that was at one edge of the refinery to inspect an old landfill area. Returning to the boat, there was a “log” that drifted alongside the jonboat that was tied to the bank. No log, big gater. We threw large pieces of wood at the gater until it got annoyed and swam off.
It's been closed many years, but there used to a restaurant between Beaumont and Houston and several miles south of the I-10 interstate. The name was Boondocks and it really was in the boondocks. It was a large building on stilts on the bank of a bayou. The menu was fried catfish, fried shrimp and fried alligator. Nights were the best time to go. After dinner, they gave you a paper bag of hush puppies and you went on the outside deck to toss hush puppies down to the gaters. At sundown, the wait staff would come out with buckets of boiled potatoes, open the windows on the bayou side and dump potatoes on wood platforms on the side of the large trees between the stilt building and bayou. So, with a window side table, you had a ring side seat to raccoons fighting over potatoes.
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