This Croc Was Caught In Australia. Don't Feel Bad For It. It Hid a Surprise.

This story is not for the squeamish! 

A large crocodile was caught in Australia (Townsville, Queensland) recently.

Impressive size! Crocs can grow well over 15 feet long, and weigh over a ton. This one's sizable, but not a record breaker.

Look at that mouth. Crocodiles do not have sweat glands, so they release heat through their mouths. Consequently, they often sleep with their mouth open and may even pant like a dog. This one's not sleeping, of course. It's dead (the stick propping its mouth open might have given it away). But why did they kill it? 

There's a lot of meat here, once you clean it up. Crocodile is consumed in many countries, including the United States. The meat is white, and it's said to have a delicate flavour, often describes as a "cross between chicken and crab." Cuts of meat include backstrap and tail fillet.

Enough about us eating them. Let's take a look at what one of these bad boys chows on...

UHHHHHH. UMMMMMMMMM. OH MY GOD. Is that what I think it is???? 

BLARGGHGHGHGHGHGHGH.

Someone fished a little too close to the water. From Wikipedia, we learn: 

"Crocodiles are very fast over short distances, even out of water. Since crocodiles feed by grabbing and holding onto their prey, they have evolved sharp teeth for tearing and holding onto flesh, and powerful muscles that close the jaws and hold them shut. These jaws can bite down with immense force, by far the strongest bite of any animal. The crocodile's bite force is more than 5,000 pounds per square inch (340 atm), compared to just 335 pounds per square inch (22.8 atm) for a rottweiler, 400 pounds per square inch (27 atm) for a large great white shark, or 800 pounds per square inch (54 atm) to 1,000 pounds per square inch (68 atm) for a hyena. The jaws are opened, however, by a very weak set of muscles. Crocodiles can thus be subdued for study or transport by taping their jaws or holding their jaws shut with large rubber bands cut from automobile inner tubes. "

Even more interesting: 

"The larger species of crocodiles are very dangerous to humans. The main danger that crocodiles pose is not their ability to run after a person but their ability to strike before the person can react. The Saltwater and Nile Crocodiles are the most dangerous, killing hundreds of people each year in parts of south-east Asia and Africa. Mugger crocodiles and possibly the endangered Black Caiman are also very dangerous to humans. American alligators are less aggressive and rarely assault humans without provocation.

The most deaths in a single crocodile attack incident may have occurred during the Battle of Ramree Island, on February 19, 1945, in Burma. Nine hundred soldiers of an Imperial Japanese Army unit, in an attempt to retreat from the Royal Navy and rejoin a larger battalion of the Japanese infantry, crossed through 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) of mangrove swamps which contained Saltwater Crocodiles. Twenty Japanese soldiers were captured alive by the British, and almost five hundred are known to have escaped Ramree. Many of the remainder may have been eaten by the crocodiles, although gunfire from the British troops was undoubtedly a contributory factor."

And in the same place they caught this one, another 3.5 meter monster has been spotted in October:

http://townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2008/10/21/18085_hpphoto.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocodile