Husband saves Wife from a Saltwater Crocodile Attack

A husband and wife had a lucky escape from a crocodile attack in a remote part of the Australian outback.  The couple were swimming in a small creek whilst holidaying in an area 100 miles southwest of Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory.

Saltwater Crocodile Attack

The attack was from a Saltwater, otherwise known as an Estuarine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus).  These animals are the largest species of crocodile on the planet and the heaviest of all the reptiles around today.  Adult males can reach lengths in excess of 20 feet and weigh up to 1 Tonne.  The largest Estuarine recorded was shot in Sumatra, Indonesia in 1978, it was reputed to be over 28 feet long and weighed more than 1300 kilogrammes.

The woman suffered leg and hand injuries but things could have been much worse had it not been for the bravery of her partner, who jumped on the 8 foot crocodile’s back in the successful rescue.  Acting like a real-life “Crocodile Dundee” the man leaped onto the reptile and this forced the crocodile to let the woman go.

The wife was taken to the Royal Darwin Hospital to have her wounds treated, a spokesman for the hospital commented: “the husband’s very swift and diligent actions have saved the day”.

This is the fourth crocodile incident that has been reported in recent weeks from the Northern Territory.  A few days earlier police were forced to open fire on a crocodile as it closed in on a swimmer who had accepted a dare to swim to an offshore crocodile trap.  A crocodile attacked a boat of tourists in the same area and in January a man rescued his colleague from a crocodile but accidentally shot his unlucky co-worker in the process.  Well, if it is not your day, it’s not your day!

Many parts of the Northern Territories have seen an increase in the number of Saltwater crocodiles, now that hunting has been largely banned.  Unfortunately, these aggressive predators are very capable of attacking people and once above 8 foot in length they are officially classed as man-eaters.  There has been a call for a controlled cull in order to reduce the number of large crocodiles in the area.

To read more about the problems caused by the growing population of Estuarine crocodiles in the Northern Territory: Invasion of the Crocodiles.