Estuarine Escapades | Monday, February 27, 2006 |
More wildlife I'm afraid.
Australians, coming from a country swarming with lethal critters, have developed a casual disregard for animal related physical danger. Sydney has its lethal Octopus and funnelwebs, Queensland has its Box and Irukandji jellyfish. I'm sure that the other major locales have the same (or at least share some of the aforementioned).
Sydney however, is free of the one monster that seemingly alarms aussies that would cherfully wade through a swarm (or whatever the collective noun is) of Blue Bottles.
And monster is a particularly apt term. Two hundred and twenty million years of practice have resulted in the Estuarine Crocodile being the biggest boy on the block by some margin. We saw one at Sydney Aquarium. Big brute - looked fierce even under the heat lamps and surrounded by folks with cameras.
Apparently, they can be found upto 200 kilometers inland and have been found as far out as 1000 kilometers out to sea. They're big. Really big. The largest ones come in at about 7 meters - yup that's right, over 20 feet. A specemin this size (a male) could weigh a metric ton.
And so, somewhat worryingly, they yanked one out of Dee Why lagoon the other day. The press has referred to it as "The Cromer Croc" as Cromer Creek runs into the lagoon.
This one was only a tiddler at somewhat less than one metre in length and has been relocated to an animal park. I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't want to find it in your bath though.
Australians, coming from a country swarming with lethal critters, have developed a casual disregard for animal related physical danger. Sydney has its lethal Octopus and funnelwebs, Queensland has its Box and Irukandji jellyfish. I'm sure that the other major locales have the same (or at least share some of the aforementioned).
Sydney however, is free of the one monster that seemingly alarms aussies that would cherfully wade through a swarm (or whatever the collective noun is) of Blue Bottles.
And monster is a particularly apt term. Two hundred and twenty million years of practice have resulted in the Estuarine Crocodile being the biggest boy on the block by some margin. We saw one at Sydney Aquarium. Big brute - looked fierce even under the heat lamps and surrounded by folks with cameras.
Apparently, they can be found upto 200 kilometers inland and have been found as far out as 1000 kilometers out to sea. They're big. Really big. The largest ones come in at about 7 meters - yup that's right, over 20 feet. A specemin this size (a male) could weigh a metric ton.
And so, somewhat worryingly, they yanked one out of Dee Why lagoon the other day. The press has referred to it as "The Cromer Croc" as Cromer Creek runs into the lagoon.
This one was only a tiddler at somewhat less than one metre in length and has been relocated to an animal park. I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't want to find it in your bath though.
