A young crocodile was returned to his zoo after a Sydney man spotted the missing reptile on a riverbank and decided to capture him. The man said he applied the skills he learned from the TV show "Crocodile Hunter."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/V. Devai
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Sydney resident Aaron Hughes was walking along a river with his wife and two-year-old son when he noticed the animal basking in the sun, Australian media reported on Monday. While crocodiles are common in the northern parts of Australia, they are a rare sight in cooler waters near Sydney.
Hughes recalled hearing that two freshwater crocodiles had gone missing from a travelling zoo in early March. "There had been a bit of a running joke on the street and with my friends that those crocs are going to be turning up in a few years being 2 meters and 3 meters long, so we sort of realized straight away where it was from," he said.
The three-year-old animal was 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) long and appeared somewhat malnourished. Hughes, inspired by the TV show that featured the late Steve Irwin subduing crocodiles, decided to capture it.
"As we've all done, we've seen Steve Irwin and the Crocodile Hunter," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "We thought that we were well-versed in maybe coming up behind it and grabbing it as it wasn't really moving too quickly."
Steve Irwin died aged 44 from a stingray injury to his heart while filming an underwater documentary in 2006.
Snap without Crackle
Steve Irwin found his way to fame by taking on alligators and crocodiles on televisionImage: AP
Hughes was able to pin the crocodile down and then and pick it up, as the animal provided little resistance. Hughes then carried the reptile to his house and put it in his bathtub. The young crocodile, named Snap by his zoo keepers, apparently lived up to his name while adjusting to his new accommodation.
"He's snapping at our hands, he has teeth, they're pretty small but they're crocodile's teeth," Hughes told the Australian Daily Telegraph.
Hughes called a vet and the police, who eventually returned the animal to the Get Wild Animal Experiences Zoo. The zoo staff said that Snap was "very cold, thin and lethargic," but they were hoping he would return to normal with "some TLC [tender loving care]."
The other stolen crocodile, Crackle, is still missing. Authorities urged its return as low temperatures and an unfamiliar environment can present health problems for crocodiles.
Sharks and scorpions? The world's deadliest animals aren't what you thought
People are terrified of sharks but when you look at the number of people actually killed by them, you realize that the truly dangerous killers are others.
Image: AP
11. Sharks / wolves
People killed each year: around ten. Sharks and wolves scare many people. And there is no doubt that wolves and some shark species can kill you. But very few of them actually do. Each year there are only around ten deaths caused by either species throughout the world. You have a bigger chance of being killed by your toaster.
Image: AP
10. Lions / elephants
People killed each year: around 100. That you could be killed by a lion doesn't seem far-fetched and it does happen. Perhaps more surprising is that your chances of falling victim to an elephant are just as high. The world's largest land animal can be quite aggressive and once it becomes enraged, it certainly has the mass and strength to be dangerous.
Image: picture alliance / blickwinkel/D. u. M. Sheldon
9. Hippopotamus
People killed each year: around 500. There are countless children's toys in the shape of hippos and why wouldn't there be? They look cute with their puffy snouts and stocky builds. And they are herbivores. But don't let that fool you. They are territorial and quite aggressive and don't need provocation to come after you, so steer clear if you can.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa-Zentralbild
8. Crocodiles
People killed each year: around 1,000. Many people are probably just as scared of crocodiles as they are of sharks or lions and rightfully so. Crocodiles are carnivores and kill prey sometimes much larger than themselves including small hippos, water buffalo and, in the case of saltwater crocodiles, even sharks.
Image: Fotolia/amnachphoto
7. Tapeworms
People killed each year: around 2000. Tapeworms are parasitic flatworms that live in the digestive tracts of all sorts of vertebrates ranging from whales to mice, and humans as well. They usually find their way into our bodies as eggs or larvae via contaminated food. The infection can be treated with medication but the parasites still kill 200 times as many people as sharks do.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Loznak
6. Ascaris roundworms
People killed each year: around 2,500. Ascaris worms are another parasite contracted in a way similar to tapeworms. But they don't stay in the intestinal tract. Once the eggs hatch, they burrow through the gut wall, travel to the lungs, up the windpipe, are coughed up and swallowed again to return to the intestine where they grow into adults. Ascariasis affects around 1 billion people worldwide.
People killed each year: around 10,000. Tied in fifth place are three killers with a death toll of 10,000 each. Although to be fair, it's not the animals that are the killers here, but the parasites they carry. Schistosomiasis can be contracted from contaminated water, Chagas disease and sleeping sickness through insect bites. So make sure to bring bug repellant when you visit affected areas.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
4. Dog (rabies)
People killed each year: around 25,000. Rabies is a viral infection that can be contracted from many different animals but in countries where rabies is common among dogs, humans get it from them in 99 percent of cases. And rabies is sneaky. It can take months for symptoms to show and when they do, the disease is almost always fatal. The good news is that both dogs and humans can be vaccinated.
Image: picture-alliance/ZB/B. Wüstneck
3. Snakes
People killed each year: around 50,000. Yes: In case of doubt, steer clear of snakes. Many species aren't deadly, some aren't venomous at all but there are enough deadly snakes to make these reptiles the world's third biggest killer.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/blickwinkel/B. Trapp
2. Humans
People killed each year: around 475,000. Yes, we made the list, too. After all, we are incredibly creative when it comes to finding ways to kill each other. This earns us the sad honor of second place amongst the killers of man.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
1. Mosquitoes
People killed each year: around 725,000. In places like Germany, they are just a nuisance, elsewhere they can be harbingers of death. And again it is the diseases they carry, not the animals themselves that kill. Malaria alone kills about 600,000 people a year. Dengue fever, yellow fever and encephalitis are transmitted by mosquitoes too, making the tiny insects the world's biggest killers.
