Susan, his keeper, didn't go into much detail, except to say that if it had been for real, Burt would not have missed.Burt weighs about a ton and eats two or three chickens (from the conveniently located "chook" farm next door) per week Feeding him was truly awesome. His massive jaws dispensed with the (dead) bird in a few greedy gulps. The yolk of an egg that never got laid flew sideways out of his mouth to splatter like a glass of egg-nog a few feet away. Burt's jaws shut with a loud, hollow thump; even though we were on the safe side of the fence, we all took a pace backwards.These reptiles can stay submerged for two hours or more, drop their heart rate to around four beats per minute - and wait.
They have good vision but detect most prey from vibrations through the ground and water. The occasional clod-hopping tourist does go missing every year.An adult croc's jaws close with a force of around five tons per square centimetre. That's like two Rolls-Royces sitting on top of a snooker cue, with you underneath at the sharp end, although it is hard to imagine how anyone's ever actually measured this. What is certain, though, is that if you do ever suffer a crocodile mugging, you are unlikely to escape with your life unless it decides it doesn't like the taste of your safari strides and lets you go. So, before Susan enters the enclosure with her two colleagues, she borrows a scene from The Sweeney: "Book out a shooter, George, better go tooled up for this one!" Though George wouldn't reveal whether he had ever had to fire at one of the crocs.A highlight of our tour was the chance to hold a four-week-old baby crocodile.
Some baby! It wriggled and squirmed with the strength of a medium-sized pitbull terrier, apparently trying to beguile us with its crooked smile at the same time. Fingers were kept well out of reach, even though Susan had taped the beast's mouth shut for us.Darwin itself is an extremely pleasant place to spend a few days. It's not short of a decent slice of history and is ideally placed to visit the tropical wonderland of Kakadu National Park. Stroll along the town's main pedestrianised street - a mix of colonial and modern buildings - and you'll find a hundred and one different trips on offer for the less independent traveller.
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