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A FISHERMAN spent a nervous night perched in a mangrove tree as two crocodiles menaced him from below after his boat sank on a remote Kimberley river in Western Australia. Stan Martell told Wyndham police his boat dragged its anchor on Friday night and became wedged under a tree branch as he slept during a fishing trip ... The 7.2m craft was then swamped by the incoming tide ... two crocodiles surfaced near the sinking boat as he scrambled up the tree were he spent the night "sitting there like a Koala bear".

Florida wildlife managers have launched an experiment to see if they can keep crocodiles from returning to residential neighborhoods by temporarily taping magnets to their heads to disrupt their "homing" ability. Crocodiles are notoriously territorial and when biologists move them from urban areas to new homes in the wild, they often go right back to the place where they were captured, traveling up to 10 miles a week to get there.Scientists believe they rely in part on the Earth's magnetic fields to navigate, and that taping magnets to both sides of their heads disorients them.

Boy, 5, Dragged Away by Crocodile as Brother Watches Sunday, February 08, 2009 An Australian tour guide plunged into a croc-infested swamp in a desperate bid to save his five-year-old son snatched by a 10-foot-long crocodile. Steve Doble of Queensland, who owns Daintree Rainforest Rivertrain, flung himself into the waist-deep floodwaters Saturday only to find that his youngest boy had vanished. He was alerted by the screams of his older son Ryan, 7, who had to be treated for shock after witnessing the attack. Jeremy Doble, 5, is missing and feared dead after he was taken by the crocodile in...

If you happen to be in Australia and love extreme sports, you will love the new tourist attraction: swimming with crocodiles. Swimming face to face with large salt water crocodiles may not be everyon`s idea of fun, but adventurers rush to North Australia to enjoy this latest attraction for tourists which Australia has offered. Tourists who want to get comfy with the crocodiles climb in a transparent acrylic cage, called the “death cage”, 145 mm thick and 2,8 metres tall, wearing just a swimsuit and protective

A hungry crocodile appears to have bitten off more than it could chew in an attack on a zebra captured on film Thursday at the Masai Mara game reserve in south-western Kenya, The Daily Mail reported. A group of zebras attempted to cross the Mara river in the reserve when a crocodile leapt from the water, biting the zebra's head.

Without the cage you wouldn't stand a chance swimming with a massive saltwater crocodile. But for brave punters who still want to get cosy with a feisty croc, a new Australian tourist attraction is offering the chance for a close encounter in the safety of a clear acrylic box dubbed the 'cage of death'. Just 4cm of acrylic, a pair of goggles and a swimsuit, will separate thrill-seekers from the jaws of Choppa, a saltwater crocodile. Close encounter: A tourist dives into a cage partially immersed in a crocodile pen at Crocosaurus Cove in Darwin, Australia Getting cosy: Choppa the...

The habitat of cane toads is spreading across Australia and the poisonous amphibians are decimating populations of freshwater crocodiles, according to a leading biologist. Dr Mike Letnic, of Sydney University, says scores of crocodiles in the tropical, northern region have died after eating toads. His team visited the Victoria River district of the Northern Territory. "[In 2006] we counted more than 600 crocodiles and in 2007 we counted less than 400," he said. "There were dead crocs everywhere. The only thing that had changed between visits was that cane toads had moved through the river system."

My six nights up a tree, by Crocodile George By Barbie Dutter in Sydney Last Updated: 11:49am BST 15/08/2007 An Australian cattle rancher has told how he spent seven days up a tree looking down into the jaws of two hungry crocodiles after stumbling into a swamp crawling with the reptiles. 'I knew they were looking' David George, 53, was knocked unconscious after falling from his horse during a bush-burning operation in north Queensland. Dazed and bleeding after coming round, he remounted his horse hoping it would take him home. Instead it took him to a swamp criss-crossed by crocodile...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't hold a lavish ceremony to sign legislation Friday legalizing the importation of crocodile and alligator products until 2010. But perhaps Schwarzenegger felt he'd given enough love to dead animal skin, considering its frequent placement on his own two feet. Case in point: The Republican governor wore conspicuous green leather boots at a Capitol ceremony Friday to sign prescription drug legislation -- though the Governor's Office would not define the animal source. Starting next year, Senate Bill 1485 by Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Temecula, will exempt alligator or crocodile products from a statewide ban on commercial importation of...

Police today captured two crocodiles being kept as pets at a house in southern Portugal. The crocodiles, each aged about 18 and measuring 2.5 metres long, were living in a closed back garden in conditions similar to those of their natural habitat, the Nature and Environment protection branch of the Portimao police, who found the animals, said. The German owner was charged with illegal possession of exotic animals. Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, crocodiles are protected species.

Sean MurthaScientists have discovered a fossil in New Mexico that looks like a sixfoot-long, two-legged dinosaur, but is actually an ancient relative of alligators and crocodiles. Scientists at the American Museum of Natural History have discovered a fossil in New Mexico that looks like a six-foot-long, two-legged dinosaur along the lines of a tyrannosaur or a velociraptor. But it is actually an ancient relative of today's alligators and crocodiles. The discovery is a striking example of how different animals can evolve the same kind of body over and over again. For almost 60 years, the 210-million-year-old fossil has been...

BERLIN, Dec. 28 -- A former German ambassador to Washington and four members of his family were reported missing and apparently kidnapped Wednesday while vacationing in a remote part of Yemen. It was the latest in a string of tourist abductions in the Arabian desert. Juergen Chrobog, ambassador from 1995 to 2001, his wife and three adult sons were declared missing by the German Foreign Ministry. In Yemen, government officials said the family had been taken hostage by tribesmen who regularly seize Western tourists as bargaining chips in dealings with the government, according to news service reports from Sanaa, the...

Is it sub-Saharan African? Russian? Ig-pay atin-lay? Lurking on the funny pages are some hungry crocodiles with bad grammar, poor syntax and one crazy accent. Hullo, Zeeba Neighba . . . The characters of the daily comics have distinct voices inside my head. Bucky Katt from Get Fuzzy has a Boston accent. Hagar the Horrible sounds like Ralph Kramden. The Pattersons of For Better or For Worse sound like Canadians, if they lived in Wisconsin. And then, there are the crocodiles. The dimwitted, zebracidal crocs from Stephan Pastis' Pearls Before Swine tie me in linguistic knots. What's that accent? Brooklyn?...

Animals in the News – People in Our Zoos ? By now, I suppose everyone has heard about the misguided gentleman from New Jersey - said to be a PETA volunteer - who decided a (venomous) copperhead “needed help” in crossing the road. The snake, which had not been consulted in the matter, bit its “helper” three times ---- (by way of expressing his opinion of PETA volunteers ?) New York: A raccoon decided to visit The Big Apple , so he stowed away on a charter bus : somehow managing to escape the notice of the 50 paying passengers....

A NORTHERN Territory saltwater crocodile is being tracked by a space satellite in a new research project. NT Parks and Wildlife Minister Marion Scrymgour said the 4.2m male croc, named Sputnik, was being watched to see how far it travels in the region. Researchers from New Zealand's Massey University and NT Parks and Wildlife staff fitted a satellite tracking device to the crocodile in the Adelaide River, south of Darwin, five weeks ago, she said. It was hoped the study would give researchers an insight into the behaviour and movement of crocodiles, particularly problem crocodiles that move into Darwin Harbour...

You know that TV crocodile hunting team Steve and Terri Irwin? Well those two can expect some competition in days to come. Scientists in northern Australia have been collecting blood from crocodiles in hopes of saving humans. Studies in the late 90s showed that several antibodies in croc blood killed penicillin-resistant bacteria. More recently it has been discovered that crocodiles’ immune systems can kill the HIV virus. American scientist Mark Merchant says the reptiles “tear limbs off each other, [but] they heal up very rapidly and normally, almost always without infection.” Aussie scientist Adam Britton adds: “The crocodile has an...

BEIJING, July 8 -- Alcohol has been banned in two small Australian Aboriginal communities to stop young people from a nearby alcohol-free township from risking their lives by swimming across a crocodile-infested river to get a drink. Aboriginal elders from the communities of Perrederr and Nardirri, about 270 kilometers southwest of the tropical northern city of Darwin, asked for the ban, which was granted by the Northern Territory Licensing Commission. “In the recent past ... young people had been known to swim across the Moyle River from a restricted area in order to drink at Nardirri,” the commission said after...

Teenagers 'threw prostitutes off bridge' By Lindsay Murdoch Darwin February 11, 2005 Two teenagers admitted throwing two Thai-born prostitutes from a bridge into a crocodile-infested river in the Northern Territory, Darwin Supreme Court was told yesterday. Prosecutor Rex Wild, QC, told the court the women were alive when they were bound, tied to batteries and thrown into the Adelaide River, 70 kilometres east of Darwin, last March. Mr Wild said pathologists would testify that Somjai Insamnan, 27, and Phuangsri Kroksamrang, 58, drowned. "Whether they went into the water conscious or unconscious is something to speculate on," he said. "They... had...

Crocs breach peace in Solomons disarmament By Ian Llewellyn June 8, 2004 - 8:27AM The successful disarmament campaign on the Solomon Islands has a downside - crocodiles are thriving. Ten months ago the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (Ramsi) landed troops and police to restore order to the strife-torn nation. One of its highest priorities was reducing the numbers of weapons that were being used by militia and criminals to spread terror among the general population. Since then 3714 firearms, including many high-powered weapons, have been removed from circulation and 305,962 rounds of ammunition have been seized or handed...

The staff of Unicef’s Sri Lanka operation are in their Colombo offices dealing as best they can with a flood of desperate people, people at the end of their tether, people in overwhelming need of immediate help. CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, for instance. Ms Amanpour, or at least her producer, wants two orphans, preferably brothers who have lost at least six other members of their families, please, on the coast road between Bentota and Galle, tomorrow after two o’clock local time for a Sri Lanka — Land In Turmoil prime-time special. It is now 7.30 p.m. When approached by his assistant...

Douglas David Seifert The adult alligator has 80 teeth and a tail that can dislocate a person's jaw with a single whack. "They get a bad rap for being stupid little reptiles," says a scientist who studies — and admires — them. WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 - To the casual observer, an adult alligator afloat in an algae-dappled pond, its six-foot body motionless save for the sporadic darting of its devilish amber eyes, might conjure up any number of images, none of them fuzzy-wuzzy. A souvenir dinosaur. A log with teeth. A handbag waiting to happen. For Dr. Daphne Soares,...

Workers at a South African animal shelter have been baffled after receiving a call from a man saying there were two crocodiles up a tree. One employee, who thought the call was a joke, told the caller: "We all know that crocodiles can't climb trees." However, when the animal protection officers arrived on the scene in a Johannesburg suburb they spotted the two young crocs perched among the branches. The animals were badly dehydrated and the pair died shortly afterwards, despite attempts to revive them with water. It remains unclear how the crocodiles ended up in the tree. Story filed:...

A businessman is recovering in hospital in Malawi after a dramatic escape from the jaws of a crocodile. Mac Bosco Chawinga, 43, was swimming in Lake Malawi in the northern district of Nkhata Bay to cool off after a day's work when he was attacked by a crocodile, police officer Bob Mtekama, told BBC News Online. "Both his arms were inside the full-size crocodile's jaws, and the beast was dragging him into deeper waters when he decided to fight back," Mr Mtekama said. With his arms between the jaws of the beast and his legs pedalling helplessly under the huge...