Sweetheart (crocodile)

Sweetheart ( † 19 July 1979 English for favorite ) was the nickname of a large, male strip crocodile ( Crocodylus porosus ), which gained in the 1970s by attacking smaller outboard motor fishing boats in Australia to worldwide recognition. It is the most famous rogue crocodile ( " Rogue Crocodile" ), a common name for crocodiles, which are known by regular attacks on humans.

Life

Sweetheart presented initially is not a problem for the local population and was the totem animal of the Matngala - Weret tribe, who called it Ngirrwak ( " old man "). 1971 began Sweetheart, in the Finnis - lagoon ( Northern Territory ) attacking fishing boats. Sweetheart bite at his attacks holes in the sides of the boats and damaged the outboard engines, many boats were overturned. The occupants of the boats have largely been ignored by Sweetheart, but the crocodile taught at considerable property damage. In 1979, the attacks increased significantly, decided the Northern Territory Park Rangers to capture Sweetheart and accommodate to a crocodile farm. On the morning of July 19, 1979 Sweetheart was captured alive in a trap, anesthetized with Flaxadil, and his jaws were tied together. Sweetheart was towed behind a boat and should be considered on a boat ramp on land, on the way to the ramp, however, Sweetheart caught on a submerged tree trunk. During the five-hour attempt to draw the animal on land, swallowed Sweetheart large amounts of water and drowned.

Until his death Sweetheart attacked 15 boats, but was not a human sacrifice of his attacks. It is assumed that had lost this rather old male parts of his sense of sight and therefore perceived the loud, big boats as intruders in his territory. The attacks were thus an expression of territorial behavior and not the hunting behavior.

Sweetheart was at the time of his death, 5.1 m long and 780 kg in weight, his age was estimated at 50 years. In his stomach were found bones and hair of pigs, two snake -necked turtles and pieces of a large barramundi fish. Sweetheart was prepared after his death and is on display in Darwin now in the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. Appeared in 1986 with The Saga of Sweetheart a book on Sweetheart. In 2007, under the name Rogue - Published in the wrong area an Australian film production, which plays in the former area Sweethearts in the Northern Territory and addresses a rogue crocodile.