Never Smile at a Crocodile!

We came across some crocodiles in the wild on our trip to southern Africa, and naturally stayed well away, as they are one of the most dangerous predators around, and every year they are responsible for many accidents in lakes and rivers.  Crocodiles can live between 70 and 100 years, and can grow to about 5 meters in length!  Imagine coming face to face with something so terrifying.

The Nile Crocodile, closely related to the Alligators in America, is a very agressive predator, capable of taking most animals, and humans.  He is a very patient animal, and will wait for days sometimes for a suitable moment to attack.  He is very agile, especially in water, has four short legs and a long powerful tail and enormous jaws and teeth,  and can move very quickly on land also, if he needs to.

We had the opportunity to photograph some of these monsters, at a breeding farm near Lake Kariba.  They were safely behind an electric fence, so we felt brave enough to get out of our cars and photograph them, you will see that they are indeed very scary.  We had my daughter’s dogs in the car with us, and when one of them spotted the crocs he started to bark.  All of a sudden, all the crocodiles opened their eyes, smelt the fresh meat, and every single one of them started to move towards the fence, some of them climbing over each other to get there first…I can tell you we made our departure fairly quickly, electric fence or not!

Never smile at a Crocodile,

Cos you can’t get friendly with a Crocodile

Don’t be taken in, by his cheery grin

He’s imagining how well you’ll fit beneath his skin!