It's a dog-eat-dog world

[samhexum]

A 13-foot-long Nile crocodile made mincemeat out of a much smaller cousin in South Africa, wild new images show.

 

Shutterbug Jan Butter of Amsterdam witnessed the snack attack inside Kruger National Park, capturing the moment the hangry reptile turned cannibal.

 

“It was the first time I’d ever seen anything like this with a crocodile,” Butter, 69, told the Sun Monday. “We were 10 days into our trip to Kruger. We had been sitting near the water for about 30 minutes waiting for the crocodiles to show up.”

 

And when they did, it was the massive beast who put on dinner — and a show, sinking its 4-inch-long teeth into its doomed relative.

 

“Over the space of about a minute, it tightened its hold and dragged it into the water to eat,” recalled Butter, who was about 100 feet from the main course. “With its dinner in tow, the crocodile swam away.”

 

Nile crocodiles can grow as large as 20 feet long and weigh up to 1,650 pounds, but typically average closer to 16 feet and 500 pounds.

 

They generally eat fish, but will attack “almost anything” in their path, including zebras, small hippos and their own species, according to National Geographic.

 

[samhexum]

Prehistoric ‘swamp king’ crocodile found in Australia

 

Researchers have identified prehistoric fossils found in Australia in the 1980s as those of a massive “swamp king” crocodile.

 

Scientists from the University of Queensland said the creature, named Paludirex vincenti, was more than 16 feet long and lived between 5.33 and 2.58 million years ago, the team told research journal PeerJ.

 

The name comes from the Latin for “swamp king” and Geoff Vincent, who found a fossilized skull of the large beast.

 

“The ‘swamp king’ was one intimidating croc,” Jorgo Ristevski, a PhD candidate at University of Queensland, said in the press release. “Its fossilized skull measures around 65 centimeters, so we estimate Paludirex vincenti was at least five meters long.”

 

Ristevski said the animal would dwarf the largest living crocodiles.

 

“Paludirex had a broader, more heavy-set skull so it would’ve resembled an Indo-Pacific crocodile on steroids,” he said.

Researchers said their next step is to determine why the creature went extinct while other crocodile species in Australia survived.

Researchers have reached out to Mike Carey for a first-person account of what they looked like.

[samhexum]

Suspect bites northern California police dog, cops say

 

This woofer might want a raise.

 

A police dog was bitten by a drunk driving suspect who led cops on a car chase in Corning, Calif., late Saturday night.

 

Jorge Bucioperez was arrested after chomping at the K-9, named Blaze, according to the Corning Police Department.

Cops said Bucioperez led the police on a chase that reached 75 mph after he blew a stop sign in the small northern California city.

 

Bucioperez plowed a silver mini-van through a residential gate and took off by foot before Blaze chased him down, cops said.

 

Bucioperez, who was driving on a suspended license, was under the influence of alcohol and had methamphetamine in the auto, according to authorities.

 

He also allegedly attempted to bite human officers. In a statement, the Corning Police Department said he “barked like a dog” during the arrest.

[Old Blue]

Slightly off topic, but I remember Marlin Perkins with fondness:

 

[marylander1940]