Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Loud Gasp

I was watching

in central library 5 mins ago when I suddenly let out a big loud gasp and all the 9 tables around me turned to look. I swear Christine didnt know me then. hahaha

Labels: Croc

2:07 PM; Joy

Friday, October 19, 2007

This mad/brave fellow

It's a fine line dividing enthusiasm and insanity and this guy did it to the max.

Disguise that took the intrepid zoologist into the crocodiles' lair

by NEIL SEARS and NIGEL BLUNDELL

When Dr Brady Barr decided to dress up as a crocodile, the disguise needed to be good.

Otherwise he was in grave danger of being eaten by the real thing.

The zoologist adopted his bizarre outfit in the hope of getting closer to a colony of Nile crocodiles, which can grow up to 20ft.

His disguise was a prosthetic head attached to the front of a protective metal cage covered with canvas and a generous plastering of hippo dung to mask his human scent.

It was 13ft long - average Nile size. The head was made of glass fibre, while the frame of the body was aluminium covered with a sheet of Kevlar body armour.

Thus protected, he crawled on his hands and knees up to the fearsome reptiles, close enough to touch them.

The most dramatic moment in a documentary film about Dr Barr comes when he is approaching the largest croc on the riverbank - and mistakenly makes a sudden movement. It suddenly turns to face him head-to-head. Dr Barr whispers into his microphone: "Oh, the big one is moving towards me. He has his eye on me. I'm really nervous. I've got to back off!"

But just as he is about to retreat, another moves up behind him.

A sweating Dr Barr whispers to the camera crew: "Now I'm stuck between two giant crocs. How close is the one behind me?"

Back comes the answer: "Next to your right leg."

"So it's unsafe for me to get up and move, right?" "I would say so!"

Dr Barr, 44, claims to be unique in having studied all 23 species of crocodilian - crocodiles, alligators and caymans - in the wild.

For his latest quest, he travelled to Tanzania, where Nile crocodiles lurk in riverbank mud holes during the dry season and crowd on top of each other in burrows. When a hippo and her calf sniffed inquisitively at him, no doubt attracted by his coating of dung, he stayed as calm as possible.

"That could have been a very dangerous situation," said Texas-born Dr Barr. "And that was before I'd even seen a croc."

Ultimately he managed to infiltrate the crocodiles' lair and attach to their tails small hi-tech 'data loggers' which monitor their activity and give scientists biological information such as the temperatures in their dens.

At least one-third of all crocodile species are endangered, and his extraordinary activities have the aim of bringing worldwide attention to their plight.

"Crawling up to the crocs wasn't easy," he added. "Worse was scrambling inside their lair.

"Any time you do that, you are asking for trouble. I am worried that I am getting too old and slow. I'm starting to understand that I can't take as many chances as I have in the past."

• Barr's documentary launches National Geographic Channel's new series, Dangerous Encounters, next Monday at 9pm.

Labels: Croc

4:12 AM; Joy

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Amazing

Australian man spends 6 days up a tree to escape crocodiles

Last Updated: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 | 11:00 AM ET

CBC News

An Australian man spent nearly a week sleeping in trees after accidentally venturing into crocodile swampland in early August.

David George, a 53-year-old stockman, spent six nights in crocodile territory before he was rescued by military helicopters.

George was thrown from his horse during a routine trip in the Cape York area in the northeastern part of the country. He said he became dazed after the fall and let his horse guide him home.

"By the time I sort of regained my senses, I was in the middle of a swamp," said the father of one, adding that the brush was dense and full of croc eggs.

Night was approaching, so George said he climbed up a tree to escape the crocs. He spent the first night standing.

"I could see two sets of eyes within 12 metres apart. I reckon they were about 12 metres, eight metres away from the bottom of the tree there," he said.

By the second night, he could hear search helicopters and tore up his shirt to help rescuers find him as he worked his way out of the swamp area. Over the next five nights, he climbed higher and slept on a bed built of branches.

He was rescued on Aug. 8 when he walked out of dense brushland and was spotted by helicopters.

Labels: Croc

3:54 AM; Joy

Friday, August 10, 2007

Night Safari

Today I went to the Night Safari and Violet(my bro's gf) and my bro told me about the horrible news which no croc fans could have miss but alas, there are always some exceptions here and there.

From The Times
April 23, 2007
Catapult boy is eaten after taunting crocodile in pen

A schoolboy who climbed over a fence into a crocodile enclosure and taunted the animals with sticks and a catapult was dragged into the water and eaten.

The nine-year-old, whose family name was given as Liu, and three friends sneaked into the crocodile park at the Silver Beach holiday resort at Beihai in the southwestern Guangxi region on Friday.

The children shot at the animals with catapults and beat them with sticks.

The official Xinhua news agency said: “One of the irritated crocodiles bit Liu’s clothes and dragged him into the water where he was eaten by a swarm of crocodiles.” His companions then raised the alarm.

Investigators searched for the missing boy and decided to check inside the crocodiles. Snipers used pork to lure them out of their pool and shot dead the first animal to lumber on to the bank.

Inside it they found human remains that were confirmed to be those of the boy.

The crocodiles were still being bred, even though their performances at the park were stopped several years ago and the pool had been sealed off for auction.

The park’s owner had hired a keeper to take care of the crocodiles, but it was unclear why the man was not at the enclosure when the boys broke in. The manager and the keeper were being questioned by police.

Animal welfare has long been a low priority in China, where many zoos have for years provided bare and often squalid pens for animals that spend their entire existence in the public eye. Even at the Beijing Zoo, the prized pandas must now be cordoned off well out of reach of visitors. People have in the past tossed food wrapped in plastic bags into their pens which destroyed the digestive system of at least one of the endangered animals.

The latest scandal to attract public attention came last year in Shanghai when a city zoo cancelled its “Animal Olympics” after shows featuring boxing matches between kangaroos and their keepers, bears fighting and riding bicycles and an elephant tug-of-war drew unwelcome publicity. The event was cancelled after animal rights groups posted reports and pictures on the internet.

One of the comments was rather funny.
"Poor Crocodile, first it gets the bitter taste of some usless brat stuck in it's teeth, then it gets shot! Press charges on the other kids is what they should do, and quit killing animals for acting like animals!!!"

On an irrelevant note, these days I've been posing for way too many photos. And by posing I mean making funny faces at the camera. Ask anyone from my OG and they can testify to it, provided that they even recognise my face from those hideous photos! Haha. Will post them up if I ever get to see them.

Labels: Croc

1:52 AM; Joy

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Crocodiles

Many would have know that I'm scared of lizards but few know about my interest in a bigger reptile, crocodiles.

I developed a liking for them during one of my visit to the zoo when I was in Sec 2.

I am somewhat intrigued by their ferocity, their magnificence and their sluggish attitude. Haha. Weird combination, I know.

So this morning, while waiting to meet up with Li I corbis-ed images of crocodiles. There you go, our splendid crocs.