Archive for the 'Crocs & Gators' Category
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
According to cbs4.com, “Robo Croc” has died.
The 10 ft, 250 pound American Crocodile had been left for dead after being a victim of a hit-and-run accident in the Florida Keys on Dec. 19, 2008. Officials brought it to the zoo after sustaining massive injuries that included a crushed skull and fractures throughout its body. That trauma prevented the crocodile from eating.
He became known as “Robo Croc” after surgeons attempted to save him by attaching four steel plates with 41 screws into the crocodile’s skull on March 17th, but it looks like Robo didn’t make it. He was found dead today.
Monday, March 30th, 2009
A Florida man is recovering today after being bitten by an alligator.
James Gaff was on the back porch of his home along Lake Eustis, when the gator wandered inside. When Gaff tried to get the 2 to 3 foot gator out of the home, it bit him on his right arm.
Gaff’s wife was used a broom handle to get the gator off of Gaff, and they then threw it back into the water.
It’ll be back.
[source]
Monday, March 23rd, 2009
45-year-old Mehboob Abbas Shaikh of is a lucky man. He barely escaped the jaws of a crocodile at Powai Lake in Mumbai, India.
He had gone fishing early last Thursday morning with a friend while it was still dark not noticing the crocodile resting on the bank next to him.
The five foot croc grabbed his left arm and tried to drag him into the water. As the croc open its jaws again to get a bigger piece of Shaikh, he pulled his arm out and high- tailed it outta there.
[source]
Friday, March 20th, 2009
A 10-foot crocodile whose face was crushed by a car last year has undergone reconstructive surgery at a Florida zoo.
The croc was close to death after having its head crushed by a car in the Florida Keys last year and hasn’t been able to move its jaws or eat for three months.
Douglas Mader, of the Marathon Veterinary Hospital, has saved the reptile by reconstructing its face! Vets placed two metal rods between its eyes, extending down to the bridge of its nose, and another on each side. Forty-one metal screws were drilled into its hide, keeping the skull and snout together.
The four-hour operation took place at Miami’s Metrozoo on Tuesday.
RoboCroc is doing just fine.
[source]
Monday, March 16th, 2009
According to ABC News, Human remains have been found near a creek where an 11-year-old girl was snatched up by a crocodile yesterday.
The girl was attacked in the creek, near the Black Jungle Swamp about 40 kilometres south-east of Darwin, Australia, as she was swimming with her seven-year-old sister and two young friends.
The girl’s boardshorts were found 60 ft downstream from where she disappeared.
DNA testing will be conducted to confirm the identification but no specifics will be given in relation to the injuries or the type of evidence out of respect for the girl’s family.
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
A 15 ft saltwater croc made a meal out of a 3 ft shark last week just a few feet away from a boatload of surprised fishermen.
According to one of the passengers, “There was not a whole lot of sound,” he said. “All we could hear was the crunching sound.”
[source]
Friday, March 6th, 2009
A Bloomington, Indiana man was taking a relaxing swim in Guatelmala’s El Rosario National Park Lake when a croc decided to chomp down on his head. Apparently he was doing the backstroke, looking up at the trees and the birds, thinking “this is paradise. It doesn’t get any better than this.”
Think again… seconds later a crocodile’s jaws clamped down on his head and pulled him under water.
Waggoner began punching at the head of the croc, trying to find its eyes. Amazingly, he pulled himself free, shot 10-15 feet up to the surface, and began swimming like there was no tomorrow.
Rangers at the scene were extending hooks and rakes to Waggoner, thinking he had a drowning scare. But as he made it back to the dock, a ranger saw that his scalp was peeled back, like a flap.
Fortunately, there was a hospital nearby with a handful of nurses and a Cuban doctor on duty.
It took 100 stitches to sew his head back together.
Lots more photos here!
[source]
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
It’s confirmed… a five-year-old boy who vanished from an Australian river edge was taken by a crocodile.
The remains of Jeremy Doble were found in the stomach of a 14ft male crocodile.
The creature was trapped in the flooded Daintree River in the far north of Queensland. Jeremy had gone missing from a nearby spot on February 8. He’d been playing with his seven-year-old brother Ryan and his dog behind their home in a mangrove swamp when he disappeared.
[source]
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
St. Tammany police arrested a man for stealing thousands of dollars from funds raised for Devin Funck, the 11-year-old boy who lost his left arm in an alligator attack last summer.
Cory Dunn, a family friend of the Funck family, was arrested for allegedly taking the money. Dunn appeared on numerous television shows and websites speaking on behalf of Funck after the attack.
Authorities alleged that approximately $5,000 is missing from the Devin Funck Fund, which Dunn was in charge of.
Funck family members became suspicious of Dunn and asked police to examine the bank account. When police examined the account, authorities discovered money missing and confronted Dunn, who confessed to taking the money.
Dunn tried to justify taking the money because his daughter needed surgery and he needed to fly to Arizona to be with her.
[source + video]
Thursday, January 29th, 2009
The Lake Worth maintenance worker whose hand was mangled by an alligator is finally talking. 48-year-old Raymundo Velasquez described the attack from his hospital bed at Delray Medical Center.
“The gator grabbed the bar I was holding along with my fingers,” said Velasquez. “I plunged into the water when it pulled me. Somehow, I managed to get out. That’s when I noticed that my fingers were dangling.”
Doctors managed to save most of his left hand, but Velasquez lost half his index finger and small part of his thumb to a gator in Lake Osbourne on Tuesday.
Despite the injury, Velasquez went right back to work picking-up garbage.
“My method was to finish the job,” said Velasquez. “I don’t like to leave work half done, but I eventually had to stop because I could no longer handle the pain and I was starting to faint because I had lost a lot of blood.”
Uh, ew.
[source]
