CRYPTOLINK: Is THIS the Bristol crocodile finally caught on camera?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/video-1083154/Is-THIS-Bristol-crocodile-finally-caught-camera.html

Remember it is The Daily Mail asking the question. It is probably an immigrant crocodile here to take the benefits rightly due to homeless British crocodiles. Or one parent families. Or something like that.

MUIRHEAD'S MYSTERIES: THE CROCODILES OF WEXFORD, IRELAND

Over the last few years I have come across a total of four different crocodile sightings in the vicinity of the coastal town of Wexford in south-east Ireland, spanning a period of about 390 years. The first isn`t really a sighting but the emblem of a crocodile on a pillar in the ruins of the  abbey of Selsker in Co. Wexford, dating from 1623.

 

This image was found in the Dublin Penny Journal ,  August 2nd, 1834.(1)

The next report dates from the Irish Press, August 17th, 1933:

STRANGE WEXFORD ANIMAL

An animal, said to resemble a young crocodile, was discovered in a heap of debris in a garden at the back of Dr. Cantwell`s residence, Main Street, Bunclody, Co. Wexford, and has been forwarded to the Dublin Zoological Gardens. (2)


Forty-two years later another crocodile-type animal turned up off Co. Wexford: 'Hook Head is one of the two capes at the south end of the Barrow estuary in Co. Wexford. Here, in 1975, a monster resembling a lizard, about 20` long, was seen by fishermen.' (Cunningham and Coghlan, 2010) (3)

The fourth and final crocodile was supposedly photographed on a Wexford beach near March 17th 2010, which happens to be St Patricks Day.  I don`t know enough about Photoshop etc. to tell you if it`s genuine or not. (4) 

---

1. Dublin Penny Journal 2/8/1834  p. 87
2. R. Muirhead Irish Snakes, Wild Cats and Other Mystery Animals . BioFortean Notes 2  p. 21
3. Ibid p.22
4. http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/backstage/82898-albino-croc-spotted-wexford-ireland-beach.html

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: RECENT ALLIGATOR EPISODES IN SHANGHAI

A couple of days ago Bob Skinner passed on some information to me about Chinese Alligators in Shanghai although this report (from Chinacartimes.com on August 7th 2012 of all places) erroneously describes them as Crocodiles.

Forget New York, Shanghai Has Its Own Crocodiles Lurking About.

Rumours about Crocs and Alligators have been doing the rounds in New York for as long as anyone can remember, the problem with New York is that its actually quite cold in the winter so any man eating reptile would have to find a nice warm place to spend the winter. Shanghai is a little different however, it gets cold in winter but not overly so, throw in the fact that exotic wild animals can be bought relatively easily either for dinner or for amusement and you have a potentially dangerous situation

[The creators of this web story don`t seem to realise that the alligator is/was a native of the Yangtze which joins the E.China sea at Shanghai).

Shanghai Daily has an interesting story on the third crocodile caught in Shanghai`s creeks and rivers this year:

“Wild animal protection authorities said they caught a 1.5m long crocodile in a creek in a suburban residential area after terrified residents saw it swimming near the creek bank yesterday afternoon.

It is the third crocodile that officials said they have caught in the Pudong New Area this year.

The crocodile was seen by residents swimming in a creek near a supermarket on Changqing Road in Pudong at about 2pm yesterday. The unusual scene attracted a group of residents to a nearby bridge to watch, witnesses said.

“I was going home after shopping at that supermarket when I suddenly saw it under the bridge”, said a witness surnamed Wang. “ At first I thought it was just a big black fish but when its head floated onto the waters surface – I realized it was a crocodile!”

An official surnamed Tang with the Pudong Wild Animal Protection Station told Shanghai Daily at first they tried to use a tool to clamp down on the crocodile`s head.But the crocodile went below the surface. Tang said.

They then used a big fishing net to catch it about 4pm.

Local police were still investigating where it came from. On May 12, a crocodile was seen in a suburban creek in Pudong`s Kangqiao Area. Police said they had to kill it after failing to catch it. On January 15, a dead 2.1 meter-long crocodile was found in a creek in Pudong`s Yangyuan Area. Wild aniaml experts said it might have escaped from a restaurant (1)

1 http://www.chinacartimes.com/2012/08/07/forget-york-shanghai-crocodiles-lurking/

WILD WHITE CROCODILE IN SABAH

CROCODILE GIRL

I subscribe to a Usenet newsgroup called `Old Hongkong` which once in a blue moon distributes pictures of the erstwhile Crown Colony between the wars. I am collecting these for a project that Richard Muirhead and I have been working on since about 1992.

Whilst on the subject, if you have any old (pre-1970) pictures of Hong Kong, especially of the Mount Austen area, the gardens at the top of Victoria Peak, Peak Mansions (the large white apartment block with the green domes on the roof next to the old Peak Tram upper terminus) or Pokfulam Road, please can you get in touch? with me.

It was the peculiar fauna of Hong Kong which first got both Richard and me interested in things cryptozoological as children (remember, we have known each other about 40 years) and we have been working on a book about the cryptozoological aspects of the area, mixed with a memoir of our shared childhoods, for nearly half that time.

But back to the story.

Usually, however, the afore-mentioned newsgroup sends out nothing but soft porn with amusingly illiterate captions, and adverts for foreign currency exchange. However, occasionally it sends out something massively peculiar - like this.

I have seen photographs of people in cages swimming with sharks before but never of anyone swimming with crocodiles. I reprint them for no other reason than that they are peculiar.



The caption, by the way, reads:


Swimming With Crocodiles - South Africa

Kerry who is also a South African media executive said, "I was a little nervous but very excited to get into the water," "It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a chance I didn't want to miss out on", admitting that she checked the cage door was locked before going into the pool. So, who's next?? "

LINDSAY SELBY: Loch Lomond Crocodile?

Located in both the lowlands and the southern Highlands of Scotland, Loch Lomond is second only to Loch Ness in volume of water. For years there have been reports by residents living near the loch of a strange creature seen in the water. Some eyewitnesses describe the creature as being like the Loch Ness monster, a plesiosaur like creature, others say it looks like a large crocodile.

Then several eyewitnesses in 1997 said they had seen a 12 foot long beast eating the ducks in Loch Lomond. This article appeared in the press:

Croc Lomond Monster ~ Mystery Of 'Beast' Caught On Film.

By Ray Notarangelo.

A mystery monster has been seen gobbling ducks in Loch Lomond. the 12ft long beast, now captured on video, has left scientists baffled.

One even said it looked like a giant crocodile? SSPCA chiefs yesterday confirmed they had received several reports about the new Nessie.

A five-minute film of the beast has been shot by pals making a pop video on the banks of Loch Lomond, near Rowardennan. Edinburgh freelance journalist Nick Taylor, who owns the film, said: "When the group were packing up they discovered this creature swimming in the water. The thing was gliding through the water slowly, but it often picked up speed and swam against the tide. They got quite a shock, especially when it started to swim towards them at one point. They thought it looked like some giant crocodile or alligator. They had never seen anything like it before.

SSPCE spokeswoman Doreen Graham said: "People came on the phone saying to us: 'I hope you don't think I'm mad, but I've seen a strange creature in Loch Lomond.' ~ One man told us they were looking at a flock of ducks on the loch when suddenly one was pulled under the surface. If anyone can solve the mystery we'd love to hear from them."

Source: Daily Record: 10th April 1997.

The film ended up on the desk of Dr. Andrew Kitchener, of the Royal Museum of Scotland. After viewing the tape he admitted that the creature it showed did appear to be a crocodile; however he made it clear that a crocodile would be unable to survive in Loch Lomond. Dr. Kitchener was able to rule out a mink or an otter as the creature in the videos identity.

So what was it? Well our old friend the sturgeon is a contender and does look reptilian , or even huge pike perhaps, they are known to eat ducklings. Could it have been an abandoned pet croc which got too big to look after? It would have survived for a short time but the cold would eventually have killed it. The mystery remains . If anyone knows of any more recent sightings please post a comment.

RICHARD FREEMAN: Crocodiles in Europe

Time for Richard Freeman again. It almost seems silly introducing Richard to you all once again when he makes an appearance as guest blogger several times a week. However, our viewing audience/ readers (whatever you like to call yourselves) is growing so fast that it is certain that some of you missed the last time I introduced him.

It is well known that the Nile crocodile once had a range that extended far north of what it does today. Thousands of years ago what is now the Sahara was far moister, supporting many animals that are now found only further down in tropical Africa. Around 55000 years ago the area started to dry out. An arid zone separated two lusher areas. To the south crocodiles thrived. In the arid zone only a few relic populations made it trough to the present day. These survived by inhabiting oases and becoming smaller than the sub-Saharan crocodiles. These desert crocs grow to around 6 feet long as opposed to the tropical Nile crocodiles that may be 15-23 feet long.

But how did the northern population fair? There are accounts of crocodiles in Turkey, Tunisia, Syria and other North African countries. Crocodiles were well known around Carthage in Roman times and fairly recent crocodile bones have been unearthed in a sea cave in Algeria. Crocodiles inhabited the Rivers Yarkon, Zerak and Kishon in Syria until around 1900.

Crocodiles may have ranged even further north. They were reported from the Jordan River in 1525. They were reported as late as 1905 from the Kebara swamps near the foothills of Mount Carmel. There is even a river called the Tanimin (crocodile) River here. Two specimens shot in 1912 are still held; one at the Zoological Museum of Tel Aviv University and another at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

This begs the question ‘did crocodiles ever inhabit Europe in recent times?’ The chronicles of Sicily mentions that crocodiles were known to turn up on the island. They were recorded from the Rivers Papireto, Garaffello, and Amenano.

It is quite possible that Nile crocodiles once lived in the delta swamps of southern Spain and Southern France. This may explain some of the dragon legends associated with these areas. As recently as the 17th century a crocodile (also called a dragon) lived in the marshes at Melloroca, Spain. Its body is now in the Museum of the local Cathedral.

It is known that the Indo-Pacific crocodile will stray into temperate zones as far north as Japan (where some were held in Island temples and venerated as dragons) down to New Zealand where they may explain modern day sightings of ‘mososaurs’.

American alligators that have escaped from alligator farms have been known to live quite happily in Israel. With the trade in exotic animals and privet keepers both legal and illegal it makes you wonder if one day crocodiles will inhabit southern Europe once more.

RICHARD FREEMAN: Yokai exhibition at the Royal Academy

UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI, JAPAN’S MASTER OF THE MACARBRE AND MONSTEROUS

Richard Freeman

Anyone who knows me will tell you I have an obsession with Japan, and in particular it’s folklore. My next book ‘The Great Yokai Encyclopaedia’ (due out later in the year) is an A to Z of Japan’s monsters. Japanese monsters or yokai are mindbendingly weird, but I won’t give too much away here, you will have to buy my book!

The Royal Academy of Art is currently (until the 5th June) holding an exhibition of the work of Utagawa Kuniyoshi, one of the most celebrated Japanese artists of all time, and one who excelled in painting yokai.

Of course, as a yokai obsessive, I had to go. In fact I visited the exhibition twice. It was an eye-popping experience.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi was born in 1797, the son of a silk dyer. By the age of twelve he was producing impressive drawings that caught the attention of the renowned artist Utagawa Toyokuni whose studio he joined. He worked in the Ukiyo-e style of woodblock art. Ukiyo-e, or ‘The Floating World’ was a genre that transended the mundane, everyday world. It revolved around pleasure, entertainment and living for the moment. Kuniyoshi was one of the first Japanese artists to use the more brightly coloured western dyes and paints in his pictures. He was also the first to incorperate western perspective in his work. This made him unpopular with critics. He was, however, massivly popular with the general public. So much so that there were even Kuniyoshi pirates who did knock-offs of his prints!

Kuniyoshi had a number of themes to which he returned again and again. One was great warriors from history and legend. He painted the heroes of the Chinese classic tale The Water Margin in spectacular action poses. He was also fond of painting beautiful women from history, folklore and from contempory life. But it is for his grotesque monsters and ghosts that he is most famed.

A nuber of pictures depictiong yokai were on show in the exibition. One of the most spectacular shows the horrific Gashadokuro, a giant cannibal skeleton. It is 90 feet tall and created from the bodies of those who died in famines. Gashadokuro bites the heads off its victims and its coming is heralded by a ringing in the ears. The painting depicts a story from the 10th century in which a provincial worlord called Taira-no-Masakado led a coup against an outpost of the central government untill he was killed by his cousin Sadamori. He was dismembered and beheaded as a warning to others.

Taira-no-Masakado’s head carried on living. It leered and laughed and eventualy flew away. His daughter, outraged at the treatement of her father’s body, prayed at the ancient Kifune Shrine in Kyoto untill her outrage was given form in a in a monsterous skeleton.

In another picture we see the renowned hero Yorimasu doing battle with the Nuẽ, a sort of Japanese Chimera. The Nuẽ has the head of a monkey, the legs of a tiger, the body of a tanuki and the tail of a snake. In 1135 the Emperor Konoe whilst at his palace in Kyōtō began to suffer dreadful nightmares. He became very ill and it was noticed that a black cloud appeared on the palace roof at 2 am each morning. The Minamoto hero Yorimasu shot an arrow into the cloud. Out of the dark miasma fell a dead Nuẽ.

Yorimasu threw the weird carcass into the Sea of Japan. The body washed ashore in a bay and the locals, fearing a curse buried it. The mound under which the Nuẽ lies is still there today, but to my knowledge no one has ever excavated it.

Yorimasu features in another spectacular work by Kuniyoshi in which he battles the titanic earth spider or Tsuchigumo. Once the great Yorimitsu fell ill and was confined to his mansion in Kyoto. He had many servants so it did not bother him that he did not recognize the boy who brought him medicine at midnight. But as the days drew on Yorimitsu became more and more ill, and suspected the boy of poisoning him.

One night Yorimitsu attacked the boy and slashed him with his sword. The youth spat a vast web about the warrior and bound him to the bed. One of Yorimitsu’s lieutenants heard the commotion and ran to his aid. He met the boy in the corridor and once again the strange youth sprayed out a giant web, pinning the man down whilst he made his escape.

The boy was tracked to a cave, where his true form - that of a giant spider - was descovered. The monster was overcome and slain. At the monster spider’s death it’s vast webs disintigrated and Yorimitsu’s strange ailment vanished.

Another story has the Tsuchigumo manifesting as a beautiful woman leading an army of yokai. Yorimitsu and his friends do battle with the bestial hord. Yorimitsu hacks at the woman and her followers vanish as if an illution. The hero follows the woman to a cave were she transformes into a monsterous spider. After a desperate struggle Yorimitsu slashes her asunder. Even in death the Tsuchigumo vomits forth hundreds of spiders the size of human infants from it’s innards. Yorimitsu and his retainers claim claim total victory only after having made sure every last one is slain. Yorimitsu was wielding a sword named "Kumokirimaru" (spider-cutter).
Both stories feature in the exhibition. In the former we see the earth spider, its bloated body covered in eye-like markings, bearing down on the hero and entwining him in its web. In the second we see the Tsuchigumo vomiting forth, not just spiders but a whole army of spirits and monsters.

In another jaw-dropping picture we see a whale-sized fish shashing the boat of the samuri Minamoto no Tametomo. Winged bird men or tengu swoop down to snach him from the waves that are engulfing his wife and child.

From a cryptozoological view point the most intresting painting was Asahina Saburo and the crocodiles. It shows a Japanese warrior in battle with two crocodiles on a beach in Japan. Crocodiles are not native to Japan but are known to the Japanese as wani. In fact the huge Indo-pacific crocodile has been known to occasionally stray into the waters around the southernmost Japanese islands. German traveler Englebert Kaemfer encountered a dragon worshiped in a Japanese temple in 1690. He tells us that he saw…

“A huge four footed snake, scaly all over the body like a crocodile with sharp prickles along the back; the head beyond the rest monstrous and terrible.”

From his description the creature seemed to be a crocodile. He even refers to a crocodile in his description. Kaemfer had almost certainly not viewed a living crocodile prior to this.

However the creatures doing battle with Asahina Saburo have turtle-like fins that make them look more like Mosasaurs than crocodiles. This could be, of course, that Kuniyoshi had never seen a crocodile and was filling in the gaps in his knowlage with his imagination, but you never know.

In a more sedate and muted picture Kuniyoshi depicts Arhat Handaka, a spiritual hero and Guardian of the Buddhist Doctrines, summoning a rain dragon from a rice bowl.

These are only a handful of the monsters that Kuniyoshi depicted in his long career. I would urge anyone in the UK to hurry down to the Royal Academy of Arts and see this amazing exibition whilst you still can.

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/kuniyoshi/

RICHARD FREEMAN: Odd Tales from Herodotus - Part One: The Crocodile

Herodotus was a Greek Historian who lived c 490-415 BC. He traveled widely in what was the then knowN world. He was the first person to systematically collect data, test it in as much as he could and present it in a narrative to the reader. He is widely thought of the Father of history, ethnography and anthropology. Though many of his stories were thought of as hard to believe much of what he has written about as since been shown to be accurate.

Through his wandering he saw and heard many weird things such as tribes who speak in bat like squeaks and build houses of salt, Ethiopians preserving their dead in huge, hollowed out crystals and the Babylonians preserving their dead in honey.

He wrote several curious passages on animal life.

“The following account is of the crocodile. During the four winter months it takes no food. It is a four footed, amphibious creature, lays and hatches its eggs on land, where it spends the grater part of the day and says all night in the river, were the water is warmer than the nigh air and the dew. The difference in size between he young and the full-grown crocodile is greater than in any other known creature; for a crocodile’s egg is hardly bigger than a goose’s, and the young when hatched is small in proportion, yet it grows to a size of some twenty three feet long or even more. It has eyes like a pig’s but great fang like teeth in proportion to its body, and is the only animal to have no tongue and a stationary lower jaw; foe when it eats it brings the upper jaw down upon the lower. It has powerful claws and a scaly hide, which ion its back is impenetrable. It cannot see underwater, though its sight on land is remarkably sharp. One result of spending so much time in the water is that its mouth gets covered with leeches. Other animals avoid the crocodile, as do all birds with one exception-the sandpiper of Egyptian plover; this bird is of service to the crocodile and lives, in consequence, in the greatest amity with him; for when the crocodile comes ashore and lies with his mouth wide open (which he generally does facing towards he west), the bird hops in and swallows the leeches. The crocodile enjoys this and, in consequence, never hurts the bird. Some Egyptians reverence the crocodile as a sacred beast; other do not, but treat it as an enemy. The strongest belief in its sanctity is to be found in Thebes and around Lake Moeris; in these places they keep one particular crocodile, which they tame, putting rings made of glass and gold into its ears and bracelets round its front feet, and giving it special food and ceremonial offerings. In fact, while these creatures are alive they treat them with every kindness, and, when they die, embalm them and bury them in sacred tombs. On the other hand, in the neighborhood of Elephantine crocodiles were no considered sacred animals at all, but are eaten. In the Egyptian language these creatures are called champsae. The name crocodile-or lizard- was given them by the Ionians who saw they resembled the lizards commonly found on stone walls in their own country.

Of the numerous different ways of catching crocodiles I will describe the one which seems to me the most worthy to report. They bait a hook with a chine of pork and let it float out into midstream, and at the same time, sanding on the bank, take a live pig and beat it. The crocodile, hearing its squeals, makes a rush towards it. Gulps it down, and is hauled out of the water. The first thing the huntsman dies when he has got the beast on land is to plaster its eyes with mud; this done, it is dispatched easily enough-but without this precaution it will give a lot of trouble.”

Herodotus’ description is, overall quite good. His description of the symbiosis between the Nile crocodile and the Egyptian plover is the first of its kind.

He gets a few things wrong. The crocodile, like all other vertebrates moves the lower jaw not the upper. Crocodiles do have tongues and can see very well under water.

RICHARD FREEMAN: Giant Crocodiles - the supreme predator

Humans are habitual exaggerators. If we can make something bigger, fiercer, faster, more cunning, or more dangerous to man, then we will. We can see this simply by looking at the cinema. Films like Jaws, Anaconda, Alligator, Grizzly and Piranha all turn animals into monsters hell bent on destruction. The creatures of these films seem to exist for no other reason than to eat humans in industrial quantities. Of course exaggerating one’s encounters with wild beasts is an ego boost and makes for a good story, thus legends are born.

But is this true with crocodiles? Certainly some are man-eaters. Certainly some reach enormous sizes. But the question is just how big? Perhaps, in the case of crocodiles it’s just as well that “the ones that got away” did get away.

The record for the biggest reliably measured crocodile is something few can agree on. Some say that it was a 20.3 ft (6.2 m) shot in the Fly River, Papua New Guinea. Others disagree. Some say it was an 8.64 m (28 foot, 4 inch) male shot on the MacArthur Bank of the Norman River, Queensland, Australia in 1957 by Mrs. Kris Pawloski. The mammoth body was too big to move but was photographed, although, sadly, the photograph was lost in 1968. However, Mr. Ron Pawloski was a recognised expert on crocodiles and carefully measured the specimen. He was astounded at its size (having previously measured 10,287 specimens) and having found none to be larger than 5.5m (18 feet).

Dr Graham Webb, crocodile expert and owner of Crocodylus Park in Australia believes Ron’s story. Dr Webb says…”I spent three days talking with Ron and everything else he told me about crocodiles turned out to be very precise indeed. I can’t imagine him fabricating something like this.”

This giant was never weighed because of the impossibility of moving its immense carcass, but conservative estimates put it at a weight of two tons. Other estimates have produced a figure of three tons or more!

Another infamous giant was witnessed in the 1950s by rubber plantation owner James Montgomery. Montgomery’s plantation was near the Segama River in North Borneo. He claims to have shot twenty specimens between 6 and 8 metres in length (20-26 feet) to ensure the safety of workers who washed their laundry at the river.

One particular crocodile dwarfed even these. The local Seluka tribe believed that it was "The Father of the Devil" and threw silver coins into the water to appease it, bringing to mind the dragon hordes of legend.

Investigating, Montgomery found the beast in question hauled out on to a sandbank. The crocodile filled the whole bank and had the end of its tail in the water. Wisely deciding to leave the monster well alone Montgomery retreated. Returning later he found that the sand bank on which the creature had been basking was 9 metres (30 feet) across indicating that the creature must have been in excess of ten metres (33 feet) in length.

Borneo is giant crocodile world HQ with many stories of vast reptiles emanating from it. Back in the mid 1800s British explorer Spencer St. John wrote of such giants in his book Life in the Forest of the Far East.

“The Linggar River is famous for it’s alligators (crocodiles) which are both large and fierce. Alligators sometimes attain to a very large size. I have never measured one above seventeen feet six inches, but I saw a well known animal, the terror of the Siol branch of the Sarawak (River), that must have been at least twenty four or twenty five feet long.”

In 1956 the District Officer of Simanggang, who had the wonderful name of Abang Haji Husaini bin Datuk Haji Abdul Rashid, formed a crocodile hunting club with other government officers. Crocodile attacks had become commonplace along the Lupar in the 50s and the club was intended to curb the menace. In six months ten crocodiles were shot. The largest was fired upon near Pasir Tekalong. After being shot it dived. Three days later its body emerged. It was twenty-four feet long.

The great naturalist Charles Gould, who wrote the cryptozoological book “Mythical Monsters”(some 70 years before the term cryptozoology was coined) was well aware of giant crocodiles. A friend of his, Mr. Dennys - a resident of Singapore - told him of a 9 metre (30 foot) crocodile that haunted a tidal creek that ran through the city in the 1880s. Another colleague, Mr. Gregory - the Surveyor General of Queensland - informed him that Australia’s northern rivers were home to crocodiles as long as a whale boat (28 feet).

Another giant alive today lives in the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary in Orissa State in eastern India. It is over seven metres (23 feet) in length and three other animals in the same sanctuary have been reported as having achieved a length of over six metres (20 feet).

Australia too still harbours giants. Malcolm Douglas, filmmaker and owner of the Broome Crocodile Park encountered such a leviathan in a northern Australian river in 1987.

“We call him the “hippo”. He dwarfs everything else I`ve ever seen. Compared with him the 16 foot 4 inch croc we did catch looked like a twelve footer…once we did have him alongside a net. The corks were three feet apart and his length covered eight corks along the net. Maybe a little more.”

This would have made “Hippo” at least 7.5 metres (25 feet) long.

In 1929 Claude Le Roy used gelignite to blow up a 7.5 metre (25 foot) crocodile in a hole just below Hartley’s Creek crocodile farm north of Cairns.

Another 7.5 metre (25 foot) monster terrorised the Staaten River for fifty years. Known as the Wyabba monster, the local Aborigines believed that it could never die, as it was part of their dreaming. Though shot at many times, the croc always shrugged off the bullets and carried on as normal. It was finally put paid to by hunter Peter Cole in the mid 1950s.

An even larger specimen persists today. At over 8 metres (around 28 feet) it inhabits the Goyder river swamps of northern Arnhem Land.

In former times such giant would have been more common. Hunting in the first half of the 20th Century reduced the number of “salties”, but since their protection in the early 1970s the species has made a spectacular comeback in Australia. Soon there may be more reports like these of giant crocs in protected areas.

The largest specimens - of a truly mind boggling size - have been met with not in rivers but in the open sea. The Indopacific is the most pelagic of all crocodiles having been encountered hundreds of miles from land. Larger than the biggest predatory shark (the great white at a maximum of 6 meters) it has nothing except man to fear.

One such sea-going encounter took place in The Gulf of Bengal in 1860. The crew and passengers of the ship "Nemesis" observed a giant crocodile at close range. One of the witnesses was the writer W.H.Marshall who described it in his book "Four Years in Burma".

"As the Nemesis was proceeding onwards towards our destination our attention was directed to an alligator of enormous length, which was swimming along against the tide `(here very strong), at a rate which was perfectly astonishing. I never beheld such a monster. It paused within a very short distance from us, it's head and nearly half it's body out of the water. I should think that it could not have been less than five and forty feet long measured from the head to the extremity of the tail, and I am confident that it was traveling at a rate of at least thirty miles an hour."

It should be noted that this animal would be an Indopacific crocodile and NOT an alligator. Alligators only occur in China and North America. However, early European colonials often used incorrect names for animals and these have stuck. In Australia the Indopacific crocodile is often referred to as an alligator and there is even an Alligator River. In Belize jaguars are called "tigers" and spider-sonkeys "baboons".

In his 1965 book In the Wake of the Sea Serpents Dr Bernard Heuvelmans catalogues reports of giant, unknown marine animals from all over the world. He puts the sightings into several categories or types of “sea serpent”. One he calls the “Marine Saurian”. It is said to resemble a gigantic crocodile, up to 18 meters (60 feet) in long and is seen in the open ocean.

Heuvelmans postulates this could be the descendent of some prehistoric marine reptiles such as a mososaur or pliosaur. I would think that these sightings would, more likely, refer to massive Indopacific crocodiles observed at sea. Perhaps when pulling a long wake behind them, their size has been exaggerated in the eyes of the witnesses.

Another man who mistakenly referred to Indopacific crocodiles as “alligators” was British sea captain and trader Alexander Hamilton. Whilst in the East Indies in 1705 his men were disturbed by “alligators” whilst working on a stage rigged alongside their ship. They fired musket balls at the creatures but could not penetrate their armour. One lucky shot finally struck a creature in the eye and entered the brain. The following day they came across the carcass on the shore. They measured it at 27.5 feet.

On 9th of March 1945, Flight Sergeant Selwyn Day saw and photographed a huge crocodile shot at the mouth of the Howard River, Northern Territories. The man who shot it said it was 28 feet long.

The crocodile is suspended on a winch attached to the back of a lorry. Two men flank it but are further back in the picture so they are of little use in estimating its size. I would say it was closer to 20 feet than 28 myself.

It is fitting indeed that the other species of crocodile with a claim to having attained monstrous proportions inhabits the dark continent of Africa. This cradle of man has a deep hold on our subconscious. If giant reptiles are to exist anywhere it must be here. Despite the depredations of the white man and the homespun wars and famines, the heart of the African continent still remains an enigma.

The Nile crocodile is the world's second largest reptile and has long been known as a man-eater. Worshipped by the Egyptians as "Sebek" the God of the Nile, and by innumerable sub-Saharan tribes, this is indeed a frightening animal.

The largest `official` specimen was shot in 1905 at Mwanza, 100km east of Emin Pasha Gulf by the Duke of Mecklenburg. It measured 6.6m (21 feet) in length. This monster, however, pales in comparison to some of the other crocodiles that have been reported by some naturalists and explorers.

The renowned wildlife photographer Cherry Kearton and his friend James Barns observed an 8.2m (27 foot) crocodile basking on a sand bank in the Semlik River. The size was estimated against other crocodiles and nearby objects. A photograph was published in one of Kearton`s books "In the land of the Lion" and apparently the crocodile in question dwarfs its companions. (The author found a copy of this book in a second hand bookshop in York. The only photo of a crocodile in the book has no other crocodiles for comparison so is of little use. The author’s copy is a sixth edition, however, and may not contain the same picture as Kearton`s original.)

A 7.93m (26 foot) specimen was claimed by a Captain Riddick who is alleged to have shot it at Lake Ksoga, and another of similar size was killed on the Mbaka River in 1903. This was recorded by the experienced field naturalist Hans Besser. At first he mistook the reptile for a huge canoe half drawn out of the water. It was 7.6m (24 feet) long but part of the tail was missing! (Perhaps it had been bitten off by an even bigger crocodile!) The body was 93cm (3 feet 6 inches) high and was 4.6m (14.72 feet) in girth. The skull was 1.4m (4.48 feet) long.

In 1954 Guy de la Ruwiere saw a 7-meter (23 foot) crocodile in the Maika marshes in the northeast Congo. The animal lifted its massive head out of the water several times. It caused a huge wave when it dived beneath the surface.

One must be careful when estimating size. My colleague Dr Lars Thomas was told by some hunters, that they had shot a 35-foot crocodile in northern Australia. Dr Thomas had the men show him the carcass and it turned out to be only 18 feet long. The men had been quite sincere, but had not brought a tape measure with them.

World famous explorer Colonel John Blashford-Snell heard tales of ten-metre (33 foot) crocodiles in Ethiopia’s Blue Nile Gorge but saw none above 6m (20 feet) himself.

One man who is very adept at estimating size is Rupert Bunce. Mr. Bunce had been a soldier in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the early 70s and one of his jobs was to intercept terrorists from neighboring Zambia. The easiest way to tell if a man was indeed a terrorist was by his boots, Zambian boots being different from Rhodesian ones. On one occasion a suspect ran into the water in the southern end of Lake Kariba in an attempt to swim away from the patrols. The ill-fated fellow was seized and bitten in two by an immense crocodile. Rupert and his companions opened fire on the giant reptile with high-powered SLR rifles. These weapons can send a bullet through a brick wall at the range of a mile. Not even the armour plate of such a monster could withstand this barrage. Once the titan lay still they drew alongside in a boat. When dragged ashore and cut open the luckless victim's legs were retrieved, he was indeed a Zambian. I asked Mr. Bunce how large the crocodile was. To my amazement he told me it was between 25 and 30 feet long (I had been interviewing him on a totally unrelated matter when we strayed onto his years in Africa). Mr. Bunce was sure of this as he was used to estimating distance and size as part of his job. Unfortunately none of the men knew the zoological importance of the specimen and no photos were taken of samples kept.

In 1960 Berkeley Rice recorded the capture of a giant crocodile in his book Enter Gambia. The 27-foot creature was caught and shot near Diabugu. Crocodiles along the River Gambia seldom exceed ten feet so this one was a monster. Sadly no one knows what became of the body.

The largest reported crocodiles on the African continent hail from that last great African frontier, the Congo rainforest, known to the Lingala and other Congolese people as "Mahamba". This lord of the jungle is said to reach a shocking 15m (50 feet) in length!

In the late 19th Century Belgian explorer John Reinhardt Werner reported sightings of giant crocodiles that lend some weight to the terrifying folk tales of the native population.

Whilst traveling down the Congo on the Aja, a 12.8m (42 foot) steam launch, Werner stopped at a sand bank to shoot ducks. He shot one and pursued others over a low ridge when he saw:

..."The biggest crocodile I have ever seen. Comparing him to the Aja which lay in deep water some three hundred yards off, I reckoned him to be quite fifty feet long: whilst the centre of the saw-ridged back must have been some four feet off the ground where his belly rested".

Werner stupidly took another shot at the ducks (they had run out of meat on the ship), and alarmed the monster, which made off into the water. The creature was also witnessed by a native boy that Werner had with him.

Around three days later Werner saw another vast specimen. The Aja had embedded itself in a sandbank when it was heaved up out of the water by something causing a commotion under the ship...

"I saw an enormous crocodile - longer I am certain than the Aja - rush across the bank and tumble into the deep water beyond. I never before saw such a large crocodile move so fast, and I had no time to get a shot at him. He must have heard us coming and was trying to make for the deep water on our side of the bank, when we ran into him and hammed him onto the sand. We struck him, moving at a rate of four miles per hour, but during the short time he was in view I could not see that he bore any marks of the collision!"

It would be as well now to pause and reflect on the dimensions of such a huge crocodile. A 7.5m (25 foot) creature would be an awesome animal in the two to three ton weight bracket. A 15-metre (50 foot) animal would be a colossal weight. When an animal doubles its size its weight increases eightfold. This is because length, breadth, depth and height have all been doubled. If we take the conservative estimate of two tons for the weight of a 7.5m specimen then an animal 15 metres in length would weigh in the region of fifteen tons - three times the weight of an average elephant! If crocodiles of these dimensions do exist then they are the largest macro-predators on the planet. Most of the great whales are plankton feeders and even the toothed sperm whale feeds mainly on small fish and squid (the giant squid forms only 1% of its diet and weighs far less than the sperm whale in any case). If they do indeed exist, there is no animal on earth that could withstand an attack from one of these giant saurians.

So far no skull, bones, or hide of any modern day crocodile approaching the length of the Mahamba has been found. The beast could be purely myth or exaggeration. The fossil record however, shows us that crocodiles can reach such vast proportions. In its current war torn, tourist-imperiling state it is unlikely that the Congo will give up its secrets. Mahamba awaits some latter day Professor Challenger to discover the truth behind it.

It is obvious that we are not dealing with whole races of gargantuan crocodiles, but a few massively large individuals. If they were prehistoric survivors of a giant race then many more specimens would have turned up!

So what is it that causes certain crocodiles to become so large? I believe that it is a combination of several factors.

Both Nile and Indopacific crocodiles have large distributions. Within their range many sub-species can exist and these may display large variations in size. A striking example is found along the Aswa River in Northern Uganda. Crocodiles here reach sexual maturity at between 1.5 and 1.8m (4.9 to 5.9 feet) and never exceed 2.1m (7 feet). This is less than half the average size. This tiny race has an unusually large head at 30.5cm long. This should yield a total length of 2.13 metres but the Aswa crocodiles fall far short of this. It seems that this is a product of prolonged periods of aestivation; the retarded development being due to inactivity. It would seem that this is a strategy that has been developed to avoid food shortages.

Other areas such as Lake Malawi, The Congo, parts of Tanzania, (such as the Grumati River) and the Semliki River in Uganda/Zaire produce larger than average specimens.

Where populations of these larger than average animals have remained undisturbed, occasional freaks will be thrown up within the genetic variation that are much larger than the average. The average man is five foot nine inches tall but a lot of the population exceed this. Most big cities have several seven-foot individuals and the record human height is eight foot 11.9 inches. A large population of "Big Crocodiles" most of whom would reach 5 metres (17 feet) could throw up 7 or 8-metre (23-26 foot) specimens occasionally.

Diet is also a factor. Once it was believed that very big crocodilians were immensely old. It was thought that crocodilians grow roughly twelve inches a year until they achieve the length of 3 metres (10 feet) when the growth rate radically slows down. By this logic, to be immensely huge a crocodile must have achieved a great age.

Actually, the greatest authenticated age for a crocodilian is a fifty six year old American alligator (Alligator missippipiensis) at Dresden Zoo.

A crocodile of unknown species died at Yetkatrinaburg in Russia a few years ago at a reputed age of over seventy but this was never, as far as I am aware, properly authenticated.

However, in a paradox, unlike mammals and birds, reptiles seem to live longer in the wild than in captivity.

Protein intake seems to have more to do with large size than age. In the early 1970s, the Louisiana department of Wildlife and Fisheries made some interesting discovery relating to diet and growth rate in the American alligator. Two groups of juveniles were reared on different diets. One was fed coypu (a large South American rodent Myocastor coypu) flesh and the other fish. Nutritional analyses showed that coypu contained 14.9% crude protein, 2.1% crude fat, 0.1% crude fiber, and 45% moisture.

Fish, on the other hand, contained 9.9% protein, 4.0% fat, 1.0% fiber, and 60.6% moisture. Specimens fed on coypu grew 20% larger than their fish fed peers over a period of three years. They were also more active and aggressive.

Food with more protein content causes accelerated growth. The Aswa crocodiles were tiny due to aestivation brought on by seasonal food shortages. In other areas where protein-rich food is plentiful all year, the average size of the crocodile population was much greater. So, if we conceive of a population of naturally big crocodiles, feeding on protein-rich prey, that occasionally produces a giant freak, whose size is increased still further by its diet, then one can conceive of a truly vast animal.

Tropical seas and teeming rain forests would offer such an abundance of prey. It can be no coincidence that the largest reported crocodiles are seen in these very habitats.

It should be noted that the Indian gharial (Gavialis gangetius) has also been credited with huge sizes. Lorenze Hagenbeck, son of the famous Karl Hagenbeck - world famous animal dealer - cited one such account. One of his friends was said to have shot a 9-metre (30 foot) gharial whose bloated carcass looked like a stranded whale! Reports of such giants in this species seem unknown today.

We will leave the last word on giant crocodiles to that gallant Victorian lady explorer Mary Kingsley, who once measured a Nile crocodile twenty-two feet three inches in length.

“Stay-at-home people will always discredit great measurements, but experienced bushmen do not, and after all, if it amuses the stay-at-homes to do so, by all means let them. They have dull lives of it and it does not hurt you.”

BREAKING NEWS: A CROCODILE WITH HORNS AND TUSKS!

It sounds like a creation of J.R.R Tolkien, but a crocodile with horns and savage tusks has been uncovered by Paleontologist Paul Sereno who unveiled his find on Friday. Sereno calls it boar-croc and is yet to furnish it with a scientific name.

The University of Chicago researcher found the skull in the Sahara Desert, which many thousands of years ago was moist and supported all sorts of animals,including crocodiles. The age of the creature has not yet been revealed. There are also no details on size.

Boar-croc doesn't fit in any known order. It has a crocodile-like snout, but with horns and three sets of canine teeth like those of a wild pig adapted for eating meat, he explained.

OLD SIAM SIR

Fleur has just emailed me with an interesting BBC story about the critically endangered Siamese crocodile, which was only relatively recently thought to be extinct. It is therefore a genuine cryptozoological success story..

Check it out HERE

In 1992 the Siamese crocodile was believed to be extinct, or at least functionally extinct, in the wild. or very nearly so. However a tiny population was found in Thailand (possibly numbering as little as two individuals, discounting recent reintroductions), and there is small population in Vietnam (possibly less than 100 individuals), and more sizable populations in Burma and Laos. There is a very small remnant population in northern Cambodia. There are no recent records from Malaysia, Brunei or Indonesia.

GUEST BLOGGER RICHARD FREEMAN: Crocodile Cults. Part 3: Australiasia and the New World

Guest Blogger time for Richard Freeman again. As you are probably beginning to guess, the boy Freeman has crocodiles on the brain. He is travelling up to the north of England this week to give a talk at a newly opened spooky bar in South Shields. However he has left us with a treat - a three part article about crocodile cults around the world.

Papuans along the Sepik River in New Guinea credit the crocodile as the great creator of all things. He cased the first dry land to appear from the primal waters. He formed a crack in the earth and mated with it. From that crack, all animals and men came forth. When he opened his jaws, the upper jaw became the sky and the first dawn occurred.

The Itamul people also tell of how crocodiles roamed around the new earth founding villages. They carve crocodile heads on their canoes and statues of crocodile headed men.

Skulls of crocodiles are often kept in men’s cult houses and given offerings of betel nuts. During the initiation of Itamul youths into manhood, they are said to be swallowed by the primal crocodile who spits them out as men. Their shoulders and torsos are subjected to ritual scarification. These, to the uninitiated, are the marks of the crocodile’s teeth.

Crocodiles are powerful totems and the consequences of breaking the totemic relationship can be fatal. A well-known folk hero is Yali of Sor, leader of the Madang cargo cult. Whilst in the jungle a comrade of Yali killed a crocodile. Without the protection of the totem Yalis` friend became lost in the bush and died.

In Northern Australia there is an Aboriginal legend of how the crocodile first came into being. The story goes that a group of people were being transported across a river in a boat. An old man was waiting to be taken across the river. The boat came and went, picking up more people, but ignoring the old man. Eventually he became so angry he leapt into the water and turned himself into a crocodile. From then on crocodiles have always attacked boats.

The Gunwinggu people of Arnhen land believe that the Liverpool River was chewed out of the land by a giant crocodile who rose up inland behind the mountains and proceeded to munch his way out to sea.

Another Dreamtime story has the crocodile or Gumangan and the plover Birik-birik creating fire. The pair travelled together carrying with them the world’s only fire sticks that they rubbed together to create fire. One day they camped by a river and the crocodile decided to go hunting. The lazy plover declined to join his friend so the crocodile instructed him to make a fire whilst he was gone so that they could cook their meal.

When crocodile returned he found the plover asleep and no fire lit. He was so angry that he seized the fire sticks and threw them into the river. The plover quickly grabbed the sticks and flew away into the hills. From then on crocodiles lived near the water and plovers in the hills.

Oddly the bone-idle plover is thought of as the hero of this story for saving the fire sticks!

THE NEOTROPICS

The Olmec culture of Eastern Mexico had a crocodile deity. It was associated with good harvests. They seem to have passed on crocodile worship to other peoples. The Mayan god of death Ah, Puch was portrayed as a crocodile. Despite being a death god his image is also associated with crops. The Myans saw him as carrying the world upon his back.

Later the Aztecs still held the link between crocodiles and crop fertility. Their crocodile god Cipactli was an agriculture deity. Another crocodile god Tlaloc was thought to be responsible for bringing rain. This last facet is of particular interest when we remember how dragons are associated with the creation of rain and the control of water in the Orient.

William Homes, a 19th century anthropologist, lived with the Chiriqui tribe in Panama. He was able to trace the development of their ancestral crocodile god into a dragon like beast akin to the creatures of western myth. The monster decorated much of their contemporary pottery.

Further south the Montana people of Peru believe that carrying a crocodile tooth protects them from poison. Several tribes from the Pomeroon River basin in Guyana believe that they are descended from caiman. The story goes that the Sun was a keen fisherman and was upset that the fish in his ponds kept disappearing. He appointed the caiman to guard the ponds, unaware that the caiman was actually the one stealing the fish. When he discovered the caiman’s chicanery the sun slashed his back creating his scales. To make amends the caiman offered to give his daughter to the Sun as a wife. The caiman carved out a woman from a tree trunk. His friend the woodpecker hollowed out a vagina for the woman. When the Sun, a snake, emerged from the woodpecker’s hole he realised the woman was fertile. The carved woman bore the Sun twins who ultimately gave rise to humanity.

NORTH AMERICA

Only two species of crocodilian occur naturally in North America. The American crocodile, at the very north of it’s range reaches southern Florida. The American Alligator is more widespread but is still confined to the warm southeastern states. There is one well known legend among the Choctaw Indians.

There once was a man who had very bad luck when he hunted. Although the other hunters in his village were always able to bring home deer, this man never succeeded.

He was the strongest of the men in the village and he knew the forest well, but his luck was never good. Each time he came close to the deer, something bad would happen. A jay would call from the trees and the deer would take flight. He would step on dry leaves and the deer would run before he could shoot. His arrow would glance off a twig and miss the deer. It seemed there was no end to his troubles. Finally the man decided he would go deep into the swamps where there were many deer. He would continue hunting until he either succeeded or lost his own life. The man hunted for three days without success. At noon on the fourth day, he came to a place in the swamp where there had once been a deep pool. The late summer had been a very dry one; however, and now there was only hot sand where once there had been water. There, resting on the sand was a huge alligator. It had been without water for many days. It was so dry and weak that it was almost dead. Although the hunter's own luck had been bad, he saw that this alligator's luck was even worse."My brother," said the man, "I pity you." Then the alligator spoke. Its voice was so weak that the man could barely hear it. "Is there water nearby?" said the alligator."Yes," said the man. "There is a deep pool of clear cool water not far from here. It is just beyond that small stand of trees to the west. There the springs never dry up and the water always runs. If you go to that place, you will survive."

"I cannot travel there by myself," said the alligator. "I am too weak. Come close so I can talk to you. I will not harm you. Help me and I will also help you."

The hunter was afraid of the great alligator, but he came a bit closer. As soon as he was close, the alligator spoke again. "I know that you are a hunter but the deer always escape from you. If you help me, I will make you a great hunter. I will give you the power to kill many deer." This sounded good to the hunter, but he still feared the alligator's great jaws. "My brother," the man said, "I believe that you will help me, but you are still an alligator. I will carry you to that place, but you must allow me to bind your legs and bind your jaws so that you can do me no harm."

Immediately the alligator rolled over to its back and held up its legs. "Do as you wish," the alligator said. The man bound the alligator's jaws firmly with his sash. He made a bark strap and bound the alligator's legs together. Then, with his great strength, he lifted the big alligator to his shoulders and carried it to the deep cool water where the springs never dried. He placed the alligator on its back close to the water and he untied its feet. He untied the alligator's jaws, but still held those jaws together with one hand. Then he jumped back quickly. The alligator rolled into the pool and dove underwater. It stayed under a long time and then came up. Three more times the alligator dove, staying down longer each time. At last it came to the surface and floated there, looking up at the hunter who was seated high on the bank."You have done as you said you would," said the alligator. "You have saved me. Now I shall help you, also. Listen closely to me now and you will become a great hunter. Go now into the woods with your bow and arrows. Soon you will meet a small doe. That doe has not yet grown large enough to have young ones. Do not kill that deer. Only greet it and then continue on and your power as a hunter will increase."

The alligator continued, "Soon after that you will meet a large doe. That doe has fawns and will continue to have young ones each year. Do not kill that deer. Greet it and continue on and you will be an even greater hunter." Then he said, "Next you will meet a small buck. That buck will father many young ones. Do not kill it. Greet it and continue on and your power as a hunter will become greater still. " The alligator then said, "At last you will meet an old buck, larger than any of the others. Its time on Earth has been useful. Now it is ready to give itself to you. Go close to that deer and shoot it. Then greet it and thank it for giving itself to you. Do this and you will be the greatest of hunters."

The hunter did as the alligator said. He went into the forest and met the deer, killing only the old buck. He became the greatest of the hunters in his village. He told this story to his people. Many of them understood the alligator's wisdom and hunted in that way. That is why the Choctaws became great hunters of the deer. As long as they remembered to follow the alligator's teachings, they were never hungry.

GUEST BLOGGER RICHARD FREEMAN - Crocodile Cults Part Two - ASIA

Guest Blogger time for Richard Freeman again. As you are probably beginning to guess, the boy Freeman has crocodiles on the brain. He is travelling up to the north of England this week to give a talk at a newly opened spooky bar in South Shields. However he has left us with a treat - a three part article about crocodile cults around the world.

A veneration of crocodiles, similar to that of ancient Egypt, once existed in India. The Victorian traveler Andrew Leith Adams wrote of it after a visit in the 1860s. The “Mugger-Peer” lived in a sacred crocodile pond in Karachi, which in those days was part of India. The pond contained many crocodiles but the “Mugger Peer” was pre-eminent among them. A huge specimen, he was reputedly 200 years old and had his head painted red. He was attended by priests who fed him and his kin. Travellers were expedited to make donations to both the priests and the crocodiles. Adams and co had a goat sacrificed to them and watched as the dismembered beast was fed to the holy crocodiles.

The mugger pool still exists today, together with its population of holy reptiles. It is a Sufi shrine. This liberal strand of Islam has no problem with the veneration of the muggers. It is known as the Mango Pir shrine and lies around 15 miles southwest of the city centre. The 700-year-old shrine is said to be the resting place of a Hindu bandit who tried to rob the caravan of Baba Farid Shakar Ganj, the 13th century Sufi saint. The bandit saw the error of his way and was converted to Islam. The saint blessed him, and his lice grew into crocodiles.

The surrounding area is very dry and it is somewhat of a mystery how the 150 crocodiles got to the shrine. Some believe they are a relic of when the area was more lush. Pilgrims travel from all over Pakistan and India to feed the crocodiles on beef, chicken, and mutton in the hope that they will grant their wishes. The King of the shrine’s crocodiles is a huge male known as More Sawab, who despite his size, is reputed to be very placid. If he accepts an offering then the wish is granted. Ten years ago a child fell into the pool and More Sawab pushed him to the bank with his snout.

Lepers and those with skin afflictions bathe in the waters that run outside the shrine in the belief it can cure them.

On the Philippine island of Luzon a particularly large crocodile haunted the mouth of the Cagayan River. It was believed to contain the soul of a dead chief. This man was apparently the leader of a fierce mountain tribe. Ergo the croc was left well alone.

In Indonesia, crocodile folklore is rampant. On many islands in this vast chain, it was thought that women could mate with crocodiles. The product of this union was a human baby and a crocodile. The little reptile was released into the river whilst the human child was taken home. The mother left food for her scaly child by the waterside. Its human brother / sister would carry this on as they grew up. In return, the crocodile would protect the family. On certain feast days, they would throw special foods to the crocodiles.

On the island of Buru if a crocodile was terrorising a community it was believed that the offending creature had become infatuated with a local girl. Some poor woman was chosen (by what means it is unclear, but it was probably akin to European witch-hunts) and dressed in a bridal costume and given to the crocodile. There are no prizes for guessing what the wedding feast consisted of!

On the Moluccas crocodiles played a part in puberty rites. Youths would be taken from their mothers and passed through the jaws of a replica crocodile. Then the priests would take them away and teach them tribal secrets. After several days, they were passed out through the crocodile’s jaws again and rejoined the tribe to great rejoicing.

The influence of Islam in turning the crocodile from a subject of veneration to one of fear is illustrated by the Malay legend of Putri Padang Gerinsing. This woman took care of Siti Fatima, daughter of the Prophet Mohammed. Putri created the crocodile out of clay, betel nut sheaths, saffron, stones, and sugar cane. The crocodile was supposed to guard Fatima but at length became treacherous and savage. Fatima cursed it, driving it into the sea and giving it nails for teeth.

Of all places in Asia, the island of Borneo has the most folklore concerning crocodiles.
Many of the legends tell of marriage to crocodiles or crocodiles protecting certain tribes or peoples.

One such story relates how Sarani, princess from the Iban tribe, fell in love with a handsome prince. After a brief courtship, they were married and the prince took Sarani away to his kingdom. They paddled away in a canoe for several miles. The prince told Sarani to close her eyes. When she opened them she was in a wondrous underwater kingdom surrounded by fish.

After several months, Sarani told the prince that she missed her family and wanted to return. The prince said that if she left she would never be able to return. After some thought she said that she wished to be with her family again. The prince then revealed that he was the prince of the crocodiles. He gave her a parting gift, a magic jar that would bring prosperity to whoever owned it. If the jar was filled with water and sprinkled on the paddy fields it would ensure a good harvest. Also Sarani and all her descedents would be protected from crocodile attack.

The jar is now said to be in the possession of Jimmy Donald in Sarawak, Borneo.

Not all such relations were so friendly. One legend from central Borneo describes how a Dyak hero called Bantangorang tricked his way into a crocodile’s lair to steal its treasures. He disguised himself in bird feathers and animal skins and told the crocodile that he was its son sent to see his father by his mother who lived far away. The crocodile thought Bantangorang smelled suspiciously human so he decided to test him. The crocodile grabbed a man from the riverbank and cut him up. The unfortunate man was turned into a stew and offered to Bantangorang. The man (who was a cannibal anyway) had no trouble eating the stew. Convinced, the crocodile led the man to his lair under the riverbank. After a time Banatangorang made as if to leave then quickly turned and speared his host in the belly. He was then free to steal all the gold and jewels.

Another story has a Dyak man meeting a crocodile whilst out on a walk. The two struck up a conversation and became friends. The man invited the crocodile back to his longhouse were it entertained the whole family with fascinating stories and anecdotes. The family realised that it might do them good to have such a mighty beast in the family and offered their daughter to the crocodile in marriage.

As it turned out the crocodile was a very bad son in law. He did no work and ate all the family’s stores of corn and rice. He then began to threaten neighbours and eat their food stocks, much to the family’s shame. Finally, they ambushed the crocodile and hacked it to bits. Other crocodiles are so ashamed of their colleague’s behaviour that they do not eat Dyaks to this day.

GUEST BLOGGER RICHARD FREEMAN: Crocodile Cults - part one AFRICA

Guest Blogger time for Richard Freeman again. As you are probably beginning to guess, the boy Freeman has crocodiles on the brain. He is travelling up to the north of England this week to give a talk at a newly opened spooky bar in South Shields. However he has left us with a treat - a three part article about crocodile cults around the world.

Sebek was the crocodile headed god of the Egyptian pantheon. He controlled the flow of the river Nile and was associated with the fertility of the Nile delta. When the river flooded in September the delta would have been filled with crocodiles. He was also known as “the great devourer” perhaps in reference to the crocodile’s phenomenally powerful digestive system. This was seen as the natural circle, the life death and rebirth of all things. He is generally portrayed as a humanoid with a crocodile’s head.

Despite his predatory nature Sebek was a benevolent god. The son of Neith the first Egyptian god, Sebek was said to be one of only two gods who would endure forever as other god’s powers would fluctuate. He was a patron of the 13th Dynasty kings (1800 BC) many of whom were called Sebekhotep (Sebek is satisfied). His cult flourished in the delta areas such as Fayoum, Thebes and Lake Moeris. In 1900 excavations at Tebtunis uncovered a temple dedicated to Sebek 30 meters (100 feet) long and decorated with scenes of adoration, offerings, rituals, and great processions in his honor.

Another centre of his worship was Crocodilopolis (crocodile city). Here sacred crocodiles believed to be avatars of Sebek were kept in special sacred pools. They were adorned with gold, and hand fed milk and honey cakes by priests. Perhaps it is here that the idea that dragons guarded gold had its genesis. The chief of these pamper giants was known as Petersuchos. The city was said to have been founded by King Menes, first of the pharaohs. The legend tells of how he was set upon by wild dogs and fled into the waters of Lake Moeris. Here a crocodile offered to carry the king upon his back to the site that later became the city.

During the age of the New Kingdom (1400 BC) Sebek was seen as a manifestation of Ra the sun god, and Crocodilopolis became the pharaoh’s favorite city.

Crocodiles, like all sacred Egyptian animals, were mummified. Specimens from 30 cm (1 foot) hatchlings, to 5-meter (16 foot) adults have been found mummified. At Kom-Ombo small specimens were found stacked in their thousands and at the Maabdha Caves in central Egypt crocodile mummies were found stacked to a height of 9 meters (30 feet).

The idea of the crocodile / dragon as a force of evil may have also taken root in Egypt. Set was the god of darkness, associated with the sterility of the desert. He envied his brother Osiris. Their father Gib had divided Egypt between them but Set wanted the whole country. He hacked his brother Osiris to pieces then hid in the form of a crocodile.

Crocodiles were still being worshipped up until AD 335 when Monotheism, Christian, then Muslim put an end to Sebeks` reign. Some superstitions still hung on until relatively recently. In certain areas of Egypt it was believed that crocodiles would never attack Christians, only Muslims. Christians would bathe in parts of the Nile frequented by crocodiles whilst Muslims would not dare.

Amazingly, though no longer actually worshiped in Egypt, crocodiles were still given human sacrifices. Whenever a canal was being dug, virgins were sacrificed to appease the crocodiles. This was also thought to ensure a continuing supply of water for the surrounding crops. The practice was continued until AD 642.


In sub-Saharan Africa the crocodile still exerts a supernatural grip on the minds of humans. Many tribes believe that charms made from body parts of crocodiles, especially man-eaters, can give them immunity from crocodile attack. The belief is particularly strong in the Thongas of northern Zululand. They credit the crocodile with bringing rain (much like the eastern dragon). Crocodile fat is used as a charm against lightning strikes. Gastroliths (stones swallowed by crocodiles) are used in divination and to foretell the deaths of chiefs.

The association with crocodiles and blindness was again found by noted Dark Continent explorer David Livingstone. The people of the Ba-Kuena or crocodile clan of South Africa believed that contact with crocodiles caused swelling of the eyes and blindness. Despite believing crocodiles to be ancestor spirits they feared them greatly. Anyone who actually survived a crocodile attack was ostracised from the tribe, as it was believed the victim was tainted with sin.

In Benin crocodiles were believed to contain evil spirits. Many were kept in ponds at the Royal Palace where priests placated them with offerings. Also in Benin along the Mono River a crocodile priest sired a child with a different woman once per year. The baby was fed to the sacred crocodile as an appeasement.

In the Gambia there are several pools existing today that still contain sacred crocodiles. The most notable are at Kartong and Katchikalli. Women who have trouble in conceiving bathe in the pools, protected from the crocodiles by wooden screens. If she conceives she will bring her child back to the pool and show it to the crocodiles whist thanking them for their help. Wrestlers also bathe in the pools to bring them luck in bouts, as do businessmen before important transactions.

Human sacrifice to sacred crocodiles has been practiced in several parts of Africa. British missionary Rev J.Rosco described a crocodile cult he stumbled across in Lake Victoria, Uganda. The high priest would mimic the movements of the sacred beasts and call them out onto the lakeshore. Here prisoners, with their arms and legs broken, would be staked out. The crocodiles emerged and devoured the hapless victims. It was believed that the fishermen of the tribe could then cross the lake safely.

Crocodiles were often said to be the familiars of witchdoctors. Another missionary Rev W. Holman Bently recorded such beliefs around 1900 in the Congo. Natives considered crocodiles in themselves to be harmless creatures. They would attend fish traps and swim in waters known to be inhabited by crocodiles without hesitation. When a crocodile ate someone they said it had been bewitched. They would subsequently hunt down and kill the sorcerer.

Henry Stanley uncovered an even odder bit of folklore on Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria. The chief of the neighboring Ukara Island was said to be able to control crocodiles. One lived in his hut as tame as a dog. The chief grew enamored of a member of the harem of the chief of Ukerewe and sent out a crocodile to kidnap her. The reptile seized the girl and carried her unharmed across eight miles of water to Ukara.

When Stanley expressed doubt, he was told that the father of the current chief of Ukerewe had also owned a trained crocodile that had stolen an Arab’s wife and brought her home. There was a belief on the Island that a dead person’s soul could be transformed into a crocodile and that only bewitched crocodiles attacked humans.

The Konde, who inhabited the northern end of Lake Nyassa had similar folklore. If someone was thought to be causing man eating among crocodiles by magic they were placed in a fish trap alive and left for the crocodiles to eat.

Most people will have heard of the Leopard Men, but far fewer of the Crocodile Men. This was a secret society that flourished in Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast. Initiates dressed in crocodile masks and skins. They moved around the rivers in crocodile shaped canoes and worshipped crocodile idols. They killed victims to get their hair, lungs, and brain, which were eaten in magical rites.

In some parts of Africa crocodiles were looked upon as judges. On the White Nile at Malaka, the Shilluk tribe allowed men accused of adultery to swim the river. If they were attacked they were deemed guilty and the crocodile was the executioner.

On the island of Madagascar similar beliefs called Tangem- voay were held. Here crocodiles were known as “voay” and credited with the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. It was said that they never attacked anyone with a clear conscience. Many times an accused, in the heat of a legal debate would rise up and shout “May the voay eat me if, if I have done what I am accused of” and make for the nearest river. In one case a girl was said to be having an affair with a slave and was condemned to trial by voay. On a full moon night she entered a river close to an island inhabited by voay then submerged herself three times. She was not attacked, and her accuser was ordered to pay heavy indemnity.

The Nile crocodile is the only large predator on Madagascar so much folklore has been woven around it. It is said that a prosperous village once stood on the shores of Lake Anivorano in the north of the island. One day a weary traveller came to the village and asked for a drink of water. He had gruff refusals all around except for one old woman who gave him a drink. The stranger warned the woman and her family to move away from the lake. He was a sorcerer who caused the waters to rise and engulf the village. The ill-mannered inhabitants were all turned into crocodiles.

In another story set in the lands of the Antandroy tribe, a woman was said to have been caught in a fish trap with a crocodile. She married the voay and they had two sons who founded the Zafandravoay tribe - the sons of the crocodile. These people are said never to harm a crocodile and in turn are never attacked by one. When a Zafandravoay dies a nail is hammered into his head to stop his body from walking. Once he is placed in a tomb the nail is removed and the body is free to go to the river and become a crocodile.

In former times the entrails of dead kings of the Sakalave people were fed to the crocodiles of Lake Komakoma. The crocodiles were looked on as ancestors and never hunted unless one of them killed a human first. If a crocodile had to be killed in such a way it would be buried with great ceremony and much lamenting. Women would let down their hair in morning and the men beg the voays` spirit for forgiveness.

The French naturalist Chapelier, who visited the island over 180 years ago, knew of a chief in the Bay of Antongil who regarded a gigantic crocodile that lived in nearby pool as his ancestor. Each year he sacrificed one young man and one young woman to the beast. Bedecked in jewellery they were hung over the pond until the huge reptile came to devour them.

BUJANG SENANG THE KILLER CROCODILE OF BORNEO

Guest Blogger time for Richard Freeman again. Richard has many obsessions, but one of the greatest is crocodiles - especially the really big ones. For no reason whatsoever, therefore, except for the fact that we wanted to, here is an article he wrote some time ago about man-eating crocodiles in Borneo...

The single most infamous man eating crocodile was a giant that terrorized the Lupar River in Sarawak, Borneo. His name was Bujang Senang. The name means “happy bachelor”. So the story goes he was one a much-feared human warrior who had never been defeated in battle. His wife betrayed him to his foes who ambushed and beheaded him. His spirit became a huge crocodile that haunted the Lupar River.

The first attack that grabbed the headlines occurred 26th June 1982. Bangan Anak Pali and his brother Kebir had gone fishing for shrimp. Banang had just been appointed a tribal chief. The 26th began as a happy day for him. At one point a banded kingfisher had flown across their path. In Sarawak this is considered a bad omen, much like a black cat crossing your path. But Bangan was not a superstitious man and the pair continued their trip.

The catch was poor and not wanting to return to the longhouse empty-handed Bangan climbed out of his boat and waded into the water to get closer to the shrimps. His last words to his brother were “Name utani…baka batang”, what’s that…it feels like a log?

It was not a log. Kebir said there was a thundering sound and the river exploded. His brother vanished. What little was left of him was found five days later. His death caused an outcry. Bangan was a popular man. His ancestors fought alongside Charles Brooke, the White Raja who purged the area of headhunters in the 1850s and 1860s. The newspapers ran the headline “Bujang Senang Terror” and a ten year reign of terror began.

The authorities tried to capture the huge beast by bringing in teams of sharpshooters, professional crocodile hunters, and Pawangs, Malaysian maintains. One pawing claimed to have harpooned Bujang Senang but the giant reptile had dragged his boat against the current and dislodged the spear. A six inch hook baited with a dead monkey but their quarry ate the primate and left the steel hook twisted straight. Even a hand grenade inside a dead duck was tried but Bujang Senang was having none of it. In another encounter two grenades were hurled at the crocodile but he escaped unscathed.

The killer avoided them all. But one thing did emerge from the hunt. Witnesses claimed that Bujang Senang had distinctive white markings on his back. Like Moby Dick, the crocodile soon gained an air of legend about it.

But people become complacent. Bujang Senang seemed to have vanished and life began to gradually return to normal. On September the 27, at a place not far from the first attack, Badong Anak Apong, 51 was out gathering shrimps. A massive object rammed his boat tossing him into the water. The object was none other than Bujang Senang. Badong was seized and thrashed about like a rag doll. Horrified on lookers ran to fetch hunters with rifles from a local longhouse. They estimated the crocodile to be some twenty-five feet long. All of them saw the distinctive white back. They perused the killer and fired at it from a range of only ten feet. Despite flinching the crocodile did not seem harmed and submerged taking the body with it.

Soon after a local farmer Bah Jukin bin Tapaling offered a reward of 300,000 rupees for anyone who could kill Bujang Senang but the monster had done his disappearing trick again.

Five years later on February 29th 1989 he struck again. 57-year-old farmer Berain Anak Tungging was repairing his boat in shallow water. Bujang Senang rose from the river and grabbed him about the waist. The sole witness Pandi Anak Lia was only thirty feet away from him. He heard the victim cry out “Help me I’m dying” before he was dragged off.

Some people came forward and claimed that the white backed crocodile had been around and killing for at least thirty years. Tuah Anak Tunchun a 70-year-old man said that a crocodile with the same distinctive markings killed his brother Inch Anak Tunchun in 1962. Others said that Bujang Senang’s first victim was an Iban woman killed around 1960. No one could recall her name. A second Iban called Lindang was killed shortly afterwards. Since 1960 fourteen people had been killed by crocodiles along the Lupar River. Could they all have been the work of one rogue?

On May 21st 1992 thirty year old Dayang Anak Bayang and her elderly parents were returning to their farm after visiting a longhouse. They usually waded across a small tributary but it was high tide and the stream was deep. Her parents decided to wait for low tide but Dayang was impatient and decided to wade across. She crossed once and seeing that the water came up to her chest and no higher, returned for her mother. She did not know that a huge crocodile lay submerged in the water. As she led her mother across
It lunged out of the water and grabbed her. Dayang`s mother beat the reptile with a tree branch but it would not leg go. Her father screamed for help and several farmers raced to the scene. One shot at the crocodile three times but missed.

Dayang`s brother Enie Anak Bayang was fishing downriver when he was informed of the attack. He grabbed a shotgun and paddled to the spot. He saw the crocodile and shot at it twice but did it no harm.

By noon an armed posse of twenty-five were in pursuit of Bujang Senang. They suspected he had taken his victim’s body to a deep pool along the river and stored it among the debris. They broke into two groups. The first kept watch whilst the second erected a fence of wood and bamboo across the lower portion of the river.

Enie found his sister’s body among the debris at 12.15. At 12.30 the crocodile returned to finish it’s meal. Enie shot at its head at point blank range hitting the eye. Thrashing wildly the monster submerged. As it dived another man hurled a spear that lodged in it’s back.

As the tide began to ebb the villagers followed the killer upstream the spear shaft showing above the water. They peppered it with more shots. It reached the fence and smashed through. However a little way along a large tree had fallen across the river and become stuck in the mud blocking the reptile’s way. One man ran ahead and shot at the crocodile’s head and neck forcing it to turn about and go back the way it had come. More spears were hurled but they bounced off. Bujang Senag became enraged and reared out of the water roaring, jaws agape Enie and two friends raised their guns and fired simultaneously into the crocodile’s mouth. Thrashing in a mad frenzy it bit at floating wood and other flotsam and jetsam. Finally it sank its fangs into a tree trunk and expired. The man-eating career of Bujang Senang was over.

It took four hours to haul him ashore. His length had been overestimated. At 19 feet 3 inches and weighing over a ton he was big but certainly no record holder. This species, Indo-Pacific crocodile, can grow to over 28 feet long and weigh well over two tons. The scales on his back were indeed oddly pale. But legends die hard. Many said that the white backed crocodile was not the true Bujang Senang. One man claimed to have seen a black crocodile 35 feet long emerge from the river shortly after Berain Anak Tungging was killed in 1989. Another man said he saw the same creature in the area when Dayang was killed. Many feared that the black giant would start a new killing spree in revenge for it’s smaller kin. An anonymous person wrote to the Sarawak Administrative Office stating

“Bujang Senang cannot by killed by a bullet. Only God can determine his death.”