Dangerous invaders (part 1 and 2)

In tribute to Steve Irwin - The Crocodile Hunter

Stephen Robert Irwin was born on 22 February, 1962, in upper Fern Tree Gully, Victoria. In 1970 he and his family (his parents and two sisters) moved to Beerwah, Queensland, where his folks opened the Beerwah Reptile and Fauna Park in 1970. Steve grew up loving all wildlife, especially reptiles. He caught his first venomous snake (a Common Brown) at the tender age of six and would often arrive late to school after convincing his mother to pull over so he could rescue a lizard off the road.


By the time he was nine-years-old, he was helping his dad catch small problem crocodiles hanging around boat ramps by jumping on them in the water and wrestling them back into the dinghy. He always had an uncanny sixth sense when it came to wildlife and he spent his life honing that skill. In the 1980s Steve spent months on end living in the most remote areas of far North Queensland catching problem crocodiles before they ended up shot by a poacher’s bullet. He worked with his little dog, Sui, and developed crocodile capture and management techniques that are now utilised with crocodiles around the world.


By 1980, the family wildlife park was called the ‘Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park’ and where Steve called home. Steve and his best mate, Wes Mannion, worked countless hours caring for the wildlife and maintaining the grounds. In 1991 Steve took over managing the wildlife park and met Terri Rains, a visiting tourist, on 6 October. Steve and Terri were married in Eugene, Oregon, on 4 June 1992 at the Methodist church Terri’s grandmother used to attend. Instead of a honeymoon, the couple embarked on filming a wildlife documentary with John Stainton from the ‘Best Picture Show’ company. The show was so successful it turned into a series and the Crocodile Hunter was born.


After Steve’s parents retired in the 1992, Steve worked tirelessly to improve and expand his wildlife park. Re-naming it “Australia Zoo” in 1998, Steve’s vision for the world’s best Zoo was coming to fruition. In July 2006 Steve set out his ten year business plan for his beloved zoo. He couldn’t know he would be gone just two months later, but he believed his conservation work would go on. His two beautiful children will make sure it does.

Source: crocodilehunter.com.au

Gustave - the giant crocodile

Gustave is a massive male Nile crocodile living in Burundi. In 2004 he was estimated to be 60 years old, 20 feet (6.1 m) in length and to weigh around 1 ton, making him the largest confirmed crocodile ever seen in Africa. He is a notorious man-eater, who is rumored to have claimed as many as 300 humans from the banks of the Ruzizi River and the northern shores of Lake Tanganyika. While this number is likely exaggerated, Gustave has attained a near-mythical status and is greatly feared by people in the region. Scientists and Herpetologists who have studied Gustave claim that his uncommon size and weight impedes the crocodile's ability to hunt the species' usual, agile prey such as fish, antelope and zebra, forcing him to attack larger animals such as Hippopotamus, large wildebeest and, to some extent, humans. According to a popular local warning, he is said to hunt and leave his victims' corpses uneaten.

Gustave was named by Patrice Faye, a French resident of Burundi and self-taught naturalist who has been pursuing the crocodile since 1998. Faye and a documentary team attempted to capture Gustave in 2002 using an enormous trap, but the crocodile not only avoided it, but seemed to taunt the team as well. The ill-fated attempt was detailed in a documentary titled Capturing the Killer Croc, which aired on PBS in May 2004.


Gustave was sighted most recently in February 2008 by National Geographic sources. In parts of Asia and Australia saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) 6 metres (20 ft) long are well known and easy to spot; individuals 7 metres (23 ft) long have been reported. In eastern India the Guinness Book of World Records has confirmed the existence of a 7 metre individual. Therefore, although Gustave is not exceptional in size compared to other species of crocodiles, he is much larger than the average male Nile crocodile. He is known for the few distinct bullet scars that cover his body: one on his head and three on his right side.

World's Largest Crocodile in captivity