Sunday, August 19, 2007

Size matters when crocodile meets a shark

An extraordinary encounter between two of nature’s most fearsome man-eaters has been photographed by an amateur fisherman.

Indrek Urvet said that he watched in astonishment as a four-metre (13ft) saltwater crocodile made swift work of a much-smaller bull shark by the remote Daly River in the Northern Territory. “I just saw this big croc come charging out of the water with a shark flapping in its jaws. I turned my boat to take some photos. Suddenly the croc saw me. He turned around and came shooting towards me.”

A fisherman managed to capture this picture of the crocodile eating the shark before retreating to watch from a safer distance

Mr Urvet, who said that fishermen on the river frequently lost their catch to the bull sharks before they could reel it in, retreated and watched from a safer distance as the crocodile devoured the metre-long shark.

Bull sharks, which grow to 3.5m, are known to be highly aggressive and, unlike other marine sharks, can dwell for extended periods in both fresh and saltwater.

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