Crocodile Chases Terrified Tourist In Mexico
A tourist swimming in Mexico is lucky to be alive after a frighteningly close encounter with a gigantic crocodile.
The boy was captured on video, swimming for his life from the huge crocodile, Yahoo News reports. Footage taken by Manuel Carrera and later uploaded to Facebook shows the young man frantically trying to reach dry land, as tourists watch from the Boca Paila bridge in Sian Ka’an.
The crocodile, believed to be ten feet long, appears to be closing in on the young swimmer before one of the tourists on the bridge throws an object at it. Striking the water near its head, the impact distracts the crocodile long enough for the man to reach land.
According to Carrera, the male crocodile is often fed by fishermen and tourists in the area:
“Unfortunately, that crocodile already associated us with food and as the video shows the boy was saved because the crocodile is well fed and chased at a pace that allowed him to reach the shore.”
The boy who was chased was “a tourist who went in to swim without knowing that under that bridge lives a male 3-and-a-half-meter-long crocodile who is fed by the fishermen who sit on top,” Carrera said, according to the New York Daily News. The crocodile is “is an expert in stealing fish from the amateur fishermen who don’t reel in their catches quickly,” he added. Carrera also pointed out that locals don’t enter the water for fear of enticing the crocodile, and pleaded that tourists in the region should stop feeding the animals.
Crocodile chases swimmer to shore in Mexico http://t.co/ZGw4Qog74M pic.twitter.com/rBRkSeX71q
— BuzzFeed UK (@BuzzFeedUK) August 16, 2014
Even small crocodiles are capable of attacking and killing prey as large or larger than themselves. Recently, a crocodile named Brutus in Australia made international headlines when he was photographed in a confrontation with a bull shark. Although the end of that conflict was not recorded, it is widely believed that the saltwater crocodile bested the shark, as The Inquisitr reported.
Watch a man swim for his life as a huge crocodile stalks him: http://t.co/DPk0rhPXML pic.twitter.com/epjTuNZbH4
— RYOT NEWS (@RYOTnews) August 16, 2014
Crocodiles are ambush predators, lying in wait until prey comes close and then rushing out to strike at it. The animals are often the top predators in their environment, capable of great speed as they attack. The fact that the animal was so well-fed, as well as the last minute intervention by a tourist to distract the crocodile, likely saved the swimmer’s life.
[Image via Daily Mail]
