Perfectly evolved.
This is how the saltwater crocodile has been described to
us. A mean, intimidating, snaggle-toothed killing machine that’s older than the
dinosaurs. That could compete with the dinosaurs for territory, even.
A creature whose jaw is twice as powerful as that of the
T-Rex.
A beast that never stops growing, and tends to reach at
least twenty feet long. Yes, that’s right – top to bottom, at least three
humans could fit inside it.
And this is one of the most common animals in the Northern
Territory?! What in the what?!
They’re not hard to stumble upon, either. Willie and I have
seen so many wild crocodiles in the past two weeks that we’ve literally lost
count. Thankfully, we’ve seen most of them from the safe interior of a cruise
boat.
The croc has very quickly become one of my favorite animals,
if only because of the amount of fear and respect it demands. They can hold
their breath for hours underwater, so that if they pull you under they can
simply keep you there and drown you. They have a sixth sense, which allows them
to read electrical frequencies in your spine so that they can always pinpoint
your location.
These things are terrifying!
But they’ve also subverted some of my expectations. They’re
incredibly lazy, for instance. Some of the crocodiles in Kakadu are so lazy
that they simply sit at river junctions with their mouths open and wait for
fish to swim straight into their open jaw. Sometimes so reliably that the same
crocodiles can be found at the same junctions day after day after day. Sometimes
they don’t even bother attacking – as Willie and I found out when we swam with
four live crocodiles.
This was in a controlled environment, of course. Crocosaurus
Cove, in the heart of Darwin. We slipped into a giant cage and were dropped
into tanks with the crocodiles. And even with live bait only inches away from
them, they didn’t move.
Which was still terrifying.
We were only inches away from its massive jaw, able to see
every snaggled and crooked tooth. Its feet were as big as our head – those that
had them. One crocodile, Chopper, had lost both of his front feet in
territorial battles years before he found his way to Crocosaurus Cove; they
were simply stubs.
We also went to the Adelaide River and went on a Spectacular
Jumping Crocodile Cruise. There, employees held raw meat out over a boat and
crocodiles came flocking toward it. They would slink through the water, spot
the chicken, and then leap up for it – sometimes coming so far out of the water
that it seemed their whole body was exposed. Terrifying, electrifying, and
enough to keep me in only the largest of boats when checking out
crocodile-infested waters.
It should be mentioned, also, that the crocodiles wander all
over the territory, so most swimming holes don’t allow visitors to swim in
them. There are certain areas the croc can’t access, however – they’re terrible
climbers and can’t go up waterfalls or rocky areas. So the swimming areas in
the NT tend to be rockholes and waterfalls. They’re gorgeous and amazing and
totally worth checking out – Lichtfield’s Florence Falls and Buley Rockhole
especially.
by Andrew Adams
