Girl missing, feared taken by croc in NT

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A good trick is to always have cans of aeroguard on you/with you.... in a kayak, have a can tapet to the paddle for quick access... if you do happen to see one coming towards you... spray some about and use it like mace if it pokes its head up anywhere near you (in range) :lol:

I heard that on a show about some guy in africa, when he is where lions, tigers, hippos and monkeys and things are he always carries small cans at the ready in his pockets, almost in like holsters on his belt, in boats and vehicles bigger cans.... you know what it is like if you spray yourself in the face by accident..... with a wild creature coming at you, they change thier mind quite rapidly from the stink of aeroguard or its similar equivellants in other countries. I reckon it would make a crock think twice about attacking a tinny if every time it did it got blasted with aeroguard :shock::lol:
 
I am pretty sure that crocks are so smart and so cunning.... they are aware of thier own size and the size of the prey 'you' and stategise as to whether they can handle prey your size.... or not... and they are quite happy to back down (or run away) if they think they wont be able to defeat the prey. I think they are also smart enough to know that a person in a boat, is just that... the boat/canoe is not part of the food.... it is just like a 'wrapper' to us, with food inside.

Love the way you put that it
"The boat/Canoe is not a part of food
It is just like a wrapper to us With Food Inside"
 
I am pretty sure that crocks are so smart and so cunning....

I disagree. A large croc has a tiny brain. They are ambush hunters by instinct, and territorial displays are the same. The best I can say for there analytical ability is they can sense a sick or injured animal and will target that.
 
I was in a smallish (4m) kayak when a large (4-4.5m) croc popped up out of very deep water right next to me.
The croc panicked just as much as i did believe it or not, soaking me with it's tail and it rushed to get away.
Anpother croc charged down a steep bank literally knocking small trees over in it's hurry to get into the water on our (two of us) way back, having encountered us on the way downstream. It then leapt off a 1m bank into the water. It wasn't attacking, it was trying to get to the safety of water.
If they saw the kayak as just "a wrapper" and the human as food, there would be no reason for them to act that way.
 
I disagree. A large croc has a tiny brain. They are ambush hunters by instinct, and territorial displays are the same. The best I can say for there analytical ability is they can sense a sick or injured animal and will target that.

I have to agree. If crocs were smart croc handlers would be chopped left and right. Every day they enter through the same gate for shows, at the same time, if they were smart they would lay in wait behind a bush and ambush a handler. They work on instinct not intelligence
 
Canoes can be risky simply because territorial males can think the shape of the canoe from underneath is another croc.

Yup, reckon that was what happened, then he popped up, saw it wasn't a croc and took off.
 
A good trick is to always have cans of aeroguard on you/with you.... in a kayak, have a can tapet to the paddle for quick access... if you do happen to see one coming towards you... spray some about and use it like mace if it pokes its head up anywhere near you (in range) :lol:

I heard that on a show about some guy in africa, when he is where lions, tigers, hippos and monkeys and things are he always carries small cans at the ready in his pockets, almost in like holsters on his belt, in boats and vehicles bigger cans.... you know what it is like if you spray yourself in the face by accident..... with a wild creature coming at you, they change thier mind quite rapidly from the stink of aeroguard or its similar equivellants in other countries. I reckon it would make a crock think twice about attacking a tinny if every time it did it got blasted with aeroguard :shock::lol:

We are doing egg collection in Feb. No moretien but a .45 hand gun just in case!

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I disagree. A large croc has a tiny brain. They are ambush hunters by instinct, and territorial displays are the same. The best I can say for there analytical ability is they can sense a sick or injured animal and will target that.

That "tiny brain" is the equivalent of our cerebral cortex and it has made them smart enough to outlast the dinosaurs and probably us. As someone who meets them regularly I have no hesitation in telling you they are intelligent and calculating, I have watched two of them work together to take a blue heeler, including one staying motionless while the dog nipped his tail and the other sneaking up behind and grabbing said dog. Then sharing their prize. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE CROCS IN ANY SITUATION!
 
Hmmm doesn't necessarily make them smart.

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would they have lasted in Aus if we continued to hunt them?
Evolution made them an apex predator pure instinct and a body built for it's climate, habitat and killing. has seen it last not brains me thinks.
 
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I actually agree... prolly smart is the wrong word. They are definately cunning, and as Steve said, they can work in teams and actively hunt prey (or you) and seem to be able to plan what they are going to do, rather than just attack you and see what happens..... that and they seem to calculate, and if they cant achieve the result, they will back off and think about trying again.

Sure, they arent smart enough to counter humans who fly in in helicopters and carry firearms.... destroy thier (the crocks) habitat.... and are even 3/4 of the way to destroying the whole planet :rolleyes:

So, they arent 'that smart' but boy, I wouldnt be underestimating what they can come up with if they want you and you arent prepared :shock:
 
As if I'd get in a canoe in waters that contain croc's !!
A 5m plate aluminum Boat would be more like it :))
 
Hmmm doesn't necessarily make them smart.

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would they have lasted in Aus if we continued to hunt them?
Evolution made them an apex predator pure instinct and a body built for it's climate, habitat and killing. has seen it last not brains me thinks.

Graeme Webb, world renowned croc expert " Give me the Navy, the Army and the Airforce and I could not make saltwater crocs extinct in the Top End."
 
We are doing egg collection in Feb. No moretien but a .45 hand gun just in case!

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That "tiny brain" is the equivalent of our cerebral cortex and it has made them smart enough to outlast the dinosaurs and probably us. As someone who meets them regularly I have no hesitation in telling you they are intelligent and calculating, I have watched two of them work together to take a blue heeler, including one staying motionless while the dog nipped his tail and the other sneaking up behind and grabbing said dog. Then sharing their prize. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE CROCS IN ANY SITUATION!

They are certainly the most intelligent of all reptiles. I guess you would know Steve how hard it is to catch the same croc the same way twice...so they do learn. I figure if one gets a person out of a boat or a canoe once then they can use that experience to do it again. They have social heirachy, the ability to hunt together and make 'friendships' with other crocs for life that goes beyond just recognizing each other. I guess having the best survival skills may seem intelligent. And at the end of the day, when in their element, what more do they need?
 
I agree with Steve and Cement's points that they are "smart/intelligent" in relation to animals excluding higher order mammals and birds. I have heard secondhand information as to their intelligence and also experienced their level of "intelligence" myself. I personally believe they do learn and remember (perhaps to a certain extent).

I have found the crocs I've worked with to be very 'tuned-in' and aware, there are countless times I would be cleaning an exhibit (most times I had a backup/spotter) keeping one eye on the croc for 5-10 mins at a time and when I had to take my eye off them for 10-20 seconds they would almost without fail be ready and waiting lining me up at the water's edge (please note that if/when I took my eyes off them I made sure I was several meters outside of the strike range!).

They also treat individual keepers VERY different! They may not be "intelligent" but they deserve more credit than most people give them.
 
Whether you want to categorise them as intelligent or not doesn't really matter. Sort of like the now discredited IQ tests that were considered the be all in assessing peoples intelligence. It was realised later that all those tests measured was the persons ability to do those tests, and people began to question what actually was intelligence.

I've lived amongst crocs for over 25 years now, including a number of years near where that young girl was recently taken. I never underestimate them, I fully intend to stay a survivor. But I'll tell you about a croc we put a satellite tracker on and found out what it got up to while out of (visual) sight. It's a male measuring 4.3 metres long. Early one wet season it set off out of its territory and made the journey over 100 kms down the river to where it spills out into vast floodplains. This river doesn't have a distinct mouth to the sea, it's just numbers of tidal creeks. To get down the river it had to make its way past the "Gatekeepers", larger more dominant crocs that held the territory along the river. It found its way across the floodplains to one of the salt arms and into the sea.

Then it travelled past 2 major river systems covering more than 100 kms of coastline. It reached a larger river system and turned up stream. It went beyond the tidal reach again passing many "Gatekeepers" and over the floodplains to where it spent several weeks. From there it moved down stream again and out to sea. Reaching the sea it moved further along the coast to the next major river system which it also entered.

Never stayed too long in that river because the wet season was coming to an end. It returned to the sea and began making its way along the coast towards its home river. Found the tidal creek linking to the floodplain. With dropping water levels the risk was that it could end up cut off before reaching its own territory in the upper reaches of the river. Another risk was that with smaller and narrower water bodies, it would be far more difficult to get past the Gatekeepers unseen. (I suggested we check it by chopper to see how many legs it had still left).

Anyway, it managed to make the rest of the journey before dropping water levels made it impossible to get back home. Now, it wasn't using our satellite tracker to navigate (we deliberately leave off any controls on the unit to prevent that, LOL). So, what would you call the ability to navigate that distance, know when there'd still be enough water to get back home, and do the return navigation?
 
I've heard of the amazingly delicate sensory organs of the crocs like smell, taste, whatever it is that picks up waterborne vibrations and hearing etc. If it's travelling along a coastline it can use the coastline as a reference (like I used the rivers in NZ back country when hunting). Is it possible that it can 'taste' the different waterways? Reptiles must have a built in nav system, it may not give them compass bearings, but I am sure they 'feel' direction and have the ability to use coastlines or islands as references.
How all this sensory info is processed by the animal, I guess, is the product of years of evolution. Maybe avoiding the bigger ones at the river mouths and along it's journey is just a matter of communication between crocs (by scent, sound etc) and a respectful distance is always kept between them. He quite possibly had a few hairy moments, but got by.
I was amazed at how my wife's intuition started to really kick in, the longer we were in the bush. She was spotting everything, all the crocs, even ones that I didn't see (but i was fishing). She never missed one. But we all experienced that feeling of electric eeriness which lead up to us running from a very large one. I have heard of other people picking up on the same feeling, either from being watched or stalked, or in close proximity to dangerous animals. Maybe its this sense that gets dulled in humans by living in normal safe, comfy environments that is real intelligence. Remote country always makes me feel alive and recharges the batteries.
 
I've heard about long-distance navigation in crocs from Prof. Craig Franklin during my undergrad work. I always believed that it was linked to the earth's magnetic field, I'm not sure if that was supported from my lectures for crocs (I can't access my notes) but sea turtles use geomagnetic maps so without researching further or access to my notes that remains my understanding/hypothesis.
 
Fair enough too, like when they are travelling themselves they probably don't need that system, but when someone like steve irwin and Craig Franklin pictkem up in a chopper and drop them wherever, blindfolded, then they must have something of that nature to find there way back... The old magnetic feild theory, hope one day there will be a way to prove it.
 
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