An Outback pub owner’s eye-catching encounter with a crocodile — fighting it off with only a frying pan – has prompted warnings for tourists flocking to the Northern Territory this dry season.
Captured on video, the 3.5-metre croc is seen lunging at publican Kai Hansen at the Goat Island Lodge, about 70 kilometres south of Darwin on the Adelaide River.
The ABC reports that Mr Hansen, a Territory bush character known as ‘King Kai’, then whacks the crocodile, Casey, on the head with a frying pan twice before it scampers away.
The publican then told the ABC that there was no bad blood between them.
“Casey’s cute mate, she’s my favourite croc,” he said. “She has a lovely smile.”
However, with the NT being home to more than 100,000 wild saltwater crocodiles, experts like Ian Hunt, a crocodile ranger with the Northern Territory government, said tourists must always remember they’re in ‘croc territory’.
“The number one thing I want to make clear to everybody who comes to the territory is that crocodiles can be in absolutely any waterway — saltwater or freshwater,” he told the ABC. “There can be saltwater crocodiles in small creeks, little billabongs, small waterholes … they all can contain large crocodiles that can be a threat to life.”
The ABC reports that the vest wat to avoid a croc attack is:
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