This guy must have been very lonely.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/bizarre&id=7694180


SIQUIRRES, Costa Rica (KABC) -- A Costa Rica fisherman nursed a wounded crocodile back to health, and now the reptile has become his personal pet.

Chito found the reptile with a gunshot wound twenty years ago and helped heal him. Since then, the two have been inseparable.

Chito plays with the 17-foot, 980-pound crocodile like it was his pet dog.

It rolls over, the two wrestle, and they give each other hugs and kisses.

Chito has been entertaining visitors with his tricks for years. He said it took a long time before he felt that the crocodile had bonded with him enough to get up close and play games with the reptile.

I'll bet Chito works overtime making sure that the croc is verrrrry well-fed!:D

Like many modern animal stories, I doubt that the brain of the croc is capable of expressing the behavior attributed to it.

I think he is dealing with a creature that is controlled more like a three-way switch than a computer.

Eat-Sleep-Sex.

Probably not a lot of room in there for heady thoughts of gratitude and friendship.

This will not end well, I am afraid.

TR

I fear Chito would not survive the first nor the final position of that switch. Lucky for him the gator seems to be stuck in 'sleep' mode.

Recent photo from my country
 

This was taken at a game park a few hours from my home. This croc has caught Pumba, who would weigh in the region of about 150-170 lbs.

Okay... it's not the Zombie Apocalypse that scares me now!

Entebbe Raid
 

Ever been to DC?

That Croc with the Pumba in it's mouth is large and in charge.

The Entebbe Airport sits on the northern shores of Lake Victoria, apparently instead of trying to land C-130s on the runways undetected, I read the original plan was to paradrop commandos and Zodiacs into Lake Victoria at night and let them paddle up to the airport for the rescue. Fortunately someone figured out, the size and aggression level of the nocturnal Lake Victoria crocodile population would likely make that plan suboptimal.

12 foot gator rams car!
 

ST. PETERSBURG — The Toyota Scion was so new it didn't have any dings in its maroon paint. Its oil hadn't even been changed yet.

On the drive home along Interstate 275, heading north at 70 mph, the Scion suffered its first blemish in an unusual way.

"Gator! Gator! Gator!" Esther Foley shouted about 12:30 Sunday morning while riding shotgun.

Up ahead, near the Gandy Boulevard exit, an old truck walloped the tip of the alligator's tail.

Legs extended, mouth open and signature teeth bared, the gator bolted — right into the passenger side of the 2012 Scion.

"Like a battering ram," said 41-year-old driver Bruce Foley.

Esther Foley, 33, had to remind her shocked husband to pull over. There was no way the insurance company would believe this without a report, the Temple Terrace couple figured.

Deer and cars collide all the time. But how often does a car get T-boned by a 12-foot alligator crossing an interstate?

It's far more common to hear of alligators enjoying backyard pools, but Tampa Bay-area authorities say they field calls for the reptiles on roads — some of them heavily traveled — several times a year. A few months ago in Largo, a 10-foot alligator got stuck under a car that had rolled over it in traffic.

On this night, car and gator would meet again.

In the rearview mirror of the scuffed and dented Scion, Bruce Foley watched another car collide with the alligator — longer than the width of the lane — as it scrambled off the pavement.

"What's going to happen," he wondered, "when it goes the rest of the way across the median?"

About half an hour later, headlights heading south on the interstate hit a silhouette.

Verna Christopherson, 79, and son Mark were driving home to St. Petersburg, a few bucks richer after a night on the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino slot machines.

By the time they spotted the alligator in front of them on the highway, it was too late.

The car ran over it and launched several feet into the air.

The gator went flying, too.

"He was real fat," said Mark Christopherson, 56.

The 12-foot gator could have weighed up to 1,000 pounds, estimates Seminole trapper Vernon Yates, who had not been called out on this incident. Likely coming from the adjacent Sawgrass Lake, the alligator might have been a little scrawnier. The reptile was probably an older male that may have been wandering in search of a mate, he said.

The slow-moving creature would have needed to rest often to make it across two directions of multilane interstate traffic.

Verna Christopherson "kept it pretty cool" while driving, her son said, but he wouldn't let her get out after they stopped on the side of the road. He scraped a brown ridged scale off the underside of the car.

After wreaking $2,000 in damage to the northbound vehicle it encountered, the alligator left minimal marks on the Christophersons' car.

It caused no injuries.

But the last leg of the dangerous journey proved fatal for the alligator, which died on the side of the road.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publics...-i-275/1235899

New World Record Croc...
 

Lolong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTLZGmKOgwg

He's a big'n.. :D:lifter:D

LOLONG is dead,, RIP...
 

And he's dead... All 6-meters (20-feet) long and 1,075-kilo (2,370-pounds) :eek::eek::eek::eek:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/11/world/...html?hpt=hp_c3

My wife translated a Filipino comment about Lolong's sedation:
"You can joke with a drunk, but not with one who just woke up. He might eat you alive."

I'm only scared of a couple of things - as a Florida girl, 'Gators are one of them. Out for a jog and literally ran up on this dude. Thank God he was about 12 feet. Any smaller and he would have been more agile.

A buddy and I were hunting wild boars in the Green Swamp a little North of Tampa when we came across one about that size. It was sunning on the bank of a TINY pond about 25' x 10'. I was amazed to see such a big gator in such a little body of water.:eek:

A message from Zim
 

These three crocs were shot after Mac Bailey got taken as he was beaching his catamaran onLake Kariba, Zimbabwe, a few weeks ago. The croc shot out from between the hulls and hauled him back into the Lake right in front of his wife! They found his head in one, his arms and part of his torso in another and a leg in another. The largest croc is over 20' long and all are pretty close to that length. The man in the photo is 5'10" tall! No, there’s no photoshop used!
Mac was the first of two humans to be taken within a week on the Lake. Mac was very involved in sailing on the Lake.

[Note to self; No boating on Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe, ever.]