Sweetheart (crocodile)
Sweetheart († July 19, 1979 , English for sweetheart ) was the nickname of a large, male estuarine crocodile ( Crocodylus porosus ), which gained worldwide fame in Australia in the 1970s when it attacked smaller outboard motor fishing boats . It is probably the best-known rogue crocodile ("rogue crocodile"), a common name for crocodiles that are known through regular attacks on people.
Life
Sweetheart initially posed no problem for the local population and was the totem animal of the Matngala Weret tribe , who called it Ngirrwak ("old man"). In 1971 Sweetheart began attacking fishing boats in the Finnis Lagoon ( Northern Territory ). Sweetheart bit holes in the side walls of the boats during his attacks and damaged the outboard motors, and several boats were overturned. The occupants of the boats were largely ignored by Sweetheart, but the crocodile caused considerable property damage. When the attacks increased significantly in 1979, the Northern Territory Park Rangers decided to capture Sweetheart and house it on a crocodile farm . On the morning of July 19, 1979, Sweetheart was caught alive in a trap, anesthetized with flaxadil , and his jaws tied . Sweetheart was being towed behind a boat and was supposed to be pulled ashore via a boat ramp, but Sweetheart got caught on a submerged log on the way to the ramp. During the five-hour attempt to drag the animal ashore, Sweetheart swallowed large amounts of water and drowned.
By the time he died, Sweetheart attacked 15 boats, but none of them fell victim to his attacks. It is assumed that this very old male had lost parts of his sense of sight and therefore perceived the noisy, large boats as intruders into his territory. The attacks would have been an expression of territorial behavior and not hunting behavior.
Sweetheart was 5.1 m long and 780 kg at the time of his death, and his age was estimated to be 50 years. In his stomach were the bones and hair of pigs, two snake-necked turtles and parts of a large barramundi fish. Sweetheart was groomed after his death and is now on display in the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin . In 1986, The Saga of Sweetheart was a book about sweetheart. In 2007, an Australian film production was released under the name Rogue - In the wrong district , which takes place in the former Sweethearts district in the Northern Territory and deals with a rogue crocodile .
literature
- L. Trutnau & R. Sommerlad (2006): Crocodiles - Biology and Keeping , p. 287f. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main. ISBN 3-930612-96-8
- G. Webb & C. Manolis (2009): Crocodiles of Australia , p. 78. New Holland Publishers (Australia). ISBN 9781741108484
- Sweetheart. Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, 2007, accessed January 2, 2011 .
- Col Stringer. The Saga of Sweetheart: The Frightening But True Story of the Giant Rogue Crocodile Who Attacked Over 15 Boats on a NT River During the 1970s . Adventure Publications, 1986.