TRANSCRIPT
NOTHING CONCENTRATES THE ATTENTION MORE THAN AN ANIMAL THAT CAN KILL YOU.
AND HUNDREDS OF US ARE KILLED EVERY YEAR BY CROCODILES AND ALLIGATORS.
THESE REPTILES HAVE BEEN TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN FOR MORE THAN 200 MILLION YEARS.
THERE'S NO GRATUITOUS AGGRESSION HERE.
THEY'RE JUST DOING WHAT COMES NATURALLY.
THEY'RE NATURE'S CLEAN-UP TEAM, SNATCHING THE WEAK FROM THE HERD OR SCAVENGING THE ALREADY DEAD.
THEY HELP KEEP THE WORLD A HEALTHIER PLACE.
WHEREVER CROCODILES AND ALLIGATORS LIVE, HUMANS ARE A LATE ARRIVAL.
WE'VE ONLY BEEN A PART OF THEIR WORLD FOR LESS THAN 100,000 YEARS.
AND JUST HOW DANGEROUS THEY CAN BE, WE'VE LEARNED THE HARD WAY.
SO WHAT ARE THE SECRETS BEHIND THEIR LONG SUCCESS AS THE ANIMALS AT THE TOP OF THE HEAP, THE ULTIMATE PREDATORS?
THIS PROGRAM WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY CONTRIBUTIONS TO YOUR PBS STATION FROM VIEWERS LIKE YOU.
THANK YOU.
MAN: The thing about crocodiles is that they are big and dangerous predators.
There's no mistaking that.
They'll take you, they'll grab you, they'll rip your arms off, your legs off, they'll eat you, and that's what crocodiles are about.
And if everybody can just accept that from the start and act accordingly, there won't be half the problems there are today.
What you have here is really the ultimate predator that's evolved and designed to eat things from the water's edge.
McGILLIN: Professor Graham Webb gives it to you straight from the crocodile's mouth.
He's studied Australia's crocs for over 30 years.
The tale he's lived to tell is not only that these are the world's most dangerous animals, but that their behavior is surprisingly predictable.
Rob Briedl shows how.
Crocodiles actually work on eyesight and vibration.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Now, I'm going to slip in and swim across with this big fellow.
I won't splash, otherwise that will attract him.
McGILLIN: This is not to be tried at home.
Rob Briedl is putting his trust in a crocodile's instincts-- unchanged in millions of years.
Rob knows exactly how and why crocs do what they do.
Now I'll splash.
When we splash around, we act like animals in distress and that attracts the crocodile.
They can zero right in to where we are.
Just don't swim with them.
Thank you.
McGILLIN: Gazelles on a riverbank in East Africa don't have the knowledge that Rob has acquired.
They need to cross this river, and though they seem cautious, they're unsure of what crocodiles are.
The leading female shows no fear of them and is doing everything she shouldn't.
Other gazelles instinctively follow their leader, and their splashing triggers the crocodiles to action.
There's much more to crocodile behavior than just an instinct to kill.
But their success over millions of years owes much to their ability to learn where prey is to be found.
They're not unaware of each other, but each individual is driven by instincts that have been refined over time to give them unparalleled skills.
They are powerful hunters, designed to ambush their prey.
The origin of the line of reptiles leading to today's crocodiles lies far back in time.
Their ancestors lived before the dinosaurs, to which the crocodiles are very closely related.
They survived the mass extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, and alongside turtles and their younger, more distant relatives, the lizards and snakes, they flourished as top predators.
Today, 23 different crocodilians survive from the great age of reptiles, living in the warmer regions of the world.
Most crocodiles and alligators look very similar, but size and shape does vary, often according to what they hunt.
Heads can give a clue to diet.
Broad heads and jaws are powerful enough to handle a wide range of prey.
But narrow heads catch fish.
This hunter is an Indian gharial.
The very largest of crocodilians may be more than 20 feet long, and most adults are generally sluggish on land.
But there are exceptions.
This South American caiman is quite nimble.
Once in the water, they're all swift and powerful swimmers.
For both crocodiles and alligators, water not only hides them but will help them to hunt fast when the moment is right.
The large crocodiles of the Pacific and Indian Oceans go down to the sea.
They can tolerate salt far better than most of their relatives that are generally confined to freshwater.
Special glands in theirs mouths excrete concentrated salt back into the sea, without losing too much water from their body fluids.
So what is it that all crocodilians have in common?
They depend on the sun, which governs their life the world over.
Overnight, the water's been the warmest place for the crocs to be.
But now they sense it's warmer on land and go ashore to bask in the morning sun.
In effect, they are recharging their batteries.
Unlike warm-blooded creatures that need to eat regularly to produce body heat, reptiles are able to control their body temperature by absorbing heat from their environment.
Their energy needs are greatly reduced, and as a result, they can survive on very little food for long periods of time.
Throughout the day, crocs regulate their temperature by moving in and out of the water, or by gaping, which cools the head as moisture evaporates from the lining of the mouth.
In the tropics, the sunlight is strong by 10:00 in the morning-- hot enough for the crocs to begin a return to the water for comfort.
They'll not bask again till about 4:00 in the afternoon.
A sense of time, a sense for temperature and many other senses keep crocodiles in touch with their world.
Graham Webb.
The senses of a crocodile are all concentrated around the head, and it's really quite a remarkable sort of system because what you have is, they can breathe through the end of the snout, ( chuckles ): and, uh, sense...
The sense of smell is all in here.
Their eyesight is very acute, and they have binocular vision.
So they can use their... orient their head and use it to range-find and tell how far away prey is.
All down here, each of these cells, scales, has sensory perception.
They can feel vibration in the water.
And this is the hearing in here, the little earflap, in which they can hear acutely, and also pick up vibrations, so that, again, if there's something vibrating, they can turn round and face it and work out exactly where it is.
So when a crocodile lifts its head above the surface of the water, it's a little bit like the periscope of a submarine and everything is alert and working-- the whole sensory mechanism of the animal.
McGILLIN: And that's the sensory control behind the stealthy approach of this powerful hunter to within a yard of its prey, without any hint of alarm.
Now strength takes over, jaws that can grip over 400 pounds of struggling wildebeest with apparent ease.
It all happens in the blink of an eye.
But what comes after capture?
How does a croc eat its dinner?
How do crocodiles eat?
Well, they do it in two ways, but the same principle is used.
With the enormous pressure they have, when they take smaller animals, they just bite down, make a dotted line, pick their head up and just go shake.
When they shake it, it just tears along that dotted line.
A piece as big as their head is then swallowed whole.
With larger animals, like dead animals on a riverbank, they come in, they go chomp onto it, then they spin, and the large animal sits still and this just tears that piece out.
McGILLIN: Crocodiles are not only efficient at ambush and capture, they can digest almost everything-- meat and bones.
They waste nothing.
And after a big meal, a one-ton crocodile may survive almost a year before having to feed again.
An African Nile crocodile needs less than a tenth of the food that a lion must take.
They call this the death roll.
Rob Briedl again.
What I'm going to show you now is the so-called death roll, which is actually a feeding roll.
Got a chook tied to a bullet to the string.
The rope-- I'm going to throw it in as far as this guy and let him grab hold of it.
When he gets hold of it, I give him resistance.
See, he shakes it.
He'll shake it first until I give resistance, then he spins, see?
And that's just to break a piece out of it, that's all.
( groans then laughs ) Some power there, I tell you!
Felt like someone punched me in the... ( splashing ) See, now he's rolling again.
McGILLIN: The feeding roll is an instinctive reaction, essential to deal with a large, tough carcass, such as this hippo.
While some hold the carcass steady, others roll to rip pieces off.
There seems to be enough to go around without a fight... but how unusual is this sharing?
WEBB: Crocodiles tend to be very solitary animals, and they... they feed alone and look after themselves alone and don't trust their next-door neighbor, but on occasion, they seem to work together.
Now, sometimes this is because there's just a lot of food in one place, and they all come together and they sort of decide, let's not fight each other, there's plenty of food.
Other times it really does seem as though there's real cooperation, where they're helping each other, but that's sort of the exception rather than the rule.
McGILLIN: At Ndumo in South Africa, the exception can be seen once or twice a year, when the gates on this dam are opened.
An artificial flood races downriver.
The floodwaters are full of barbel and other fish.
This flood is out of step with the seasons, but the pace of the flow triggers some fish into racing upstream, heading for their spawning grounds.
Crocodiles on the river caught the smell of this floodwater four days ago, when it was released 100 miles upstream.
Bottlenecks, which the fish have to leap, have become gathering places for the crocs.
They're ready for the feast of fish that will jump into their jaws.
These crocodiles have learned to take advantage of this artificial flood, but may have gathered like this during natural floods for millions of years.
They fish with surprising skill, and at top speed; their strike rivals the speed and accuracy of a snake.
Their success relies not only on their skill,$ but also on their ability to learn.
They may have small brains, but crocodiles are a lot smarter than they've been portrayed, and their intelligence is matched with powerful weaponry.
Teeth are shaped to pierce or grip, to cut or crush, but not to chew.
Sensory cells detect vibration.
The jaws are opened by relatively weak muscles, but powerfully closed to grip heavyweight prey.
A valve seals the throat when the mouth is open during underwater attack.
And a third eyelid-- the nictitating membrane-- covers the eyeball when underwater.
This cover is a transparent protection, but it means that the eyes have limited focus.
So a croc must use other senses, taste and vibration, to locate its prey.
Above water, the eyes are essential to hunting, set high on the head with binocular vision for judging distance.
The pupil, a mere slit by day, can open wide at dusk or in darkness.
Look for crocodiles in the dark, and another secret of their excellent night vision shines back at you.
At the back of the eye is a mirrorlike layer, the tapetum.
It reflects light back into the eye, doubling its sensitivity.
Crocodiles miss little, even in the dark.
Most people don't think about crocodiles as communicating with each other, but in fact we've learned that they do.
And they have a really rich repertoire of visual signals and sound signals that they use, but they're subtle.
So, for example, a crocodile can lift its head.
It doesn't seem to mean much, but it actually is this crocodile saying to that crocodile, "Okay, I give in, you're the boss."
A crocodile can arch its tail.
That's another signal saying, "I'm in a really aggressive mood.
If you don't get out of the way here, I'm going to hit you."
A crocodile can vibrate its sides very rapidly and generate a signal that goes right down into the water and carries a long way, that tells everybody else that it's... the crocodile is there, and it's aggressive.
So that when you look at crocodiles, they often seem to be sitting there doing nothing.
But in fact, they're very alert, very conscious of each other, and always giving little signals to each other to make sure who knows who's at the top of the peck order.
Very important in crocodiles.
McGILLIN: Lifting the head is important body language at mating time.
This could be a small male or female, signaling submission to a much larger male.
Small females are afraid to mate with mature males because they risk injury.
In this case, it looks as if the smaller animal is a male.
It's being chased out of the territory.
A male Indian gharial has a distinctive knob-- the ghara-- on its narrow snout.
The female does not have that decorative signal.
The size of the ghara is a measure of a male's dominance, and the gharial can also use it to produce a buzzing sound.
These badges of male rank are flaunted high.
Each male knows his place.
!z/ Size matters when gharials are mating.
These Nile crocodiles are competing for dominance by jaw-snapping, raising tails, and even blowing bubbles.
But it's in the Florida Everglades that the loudest advertising for mates can be heard.
During the breeding season, these alligators bellowz and vibrate their expanded bodies-- something that terrified early explorers.
( low moaning ) McGILLIN: The underwater sounds can be heard far off, but their postures and bellowing assert local supremacy.
Sometimes talking is not enough, and rival males come to blows.
It's violent and damaging.
The victor emerges.
He's made his point and sent the challenger on his way, out of the territory.
A smaller female alligator, like a groupie following the fight, begins to court the male.
One male may mate with several females.
Unsuccessful males are forced out of the best territories, sometimes into our backyards.
( dog barks in background ) As human populations have increased in Florida, this scenario has played out more and more frequently.
The alligators have a problem, but people don't necessarily see it that way.
To a homeowner, the reptile is a nuisance-- one that needs to be dealt with.
Pesky Critters.
Okay, what was the address?
All right, listen.
Keep everybody away from him and we'll be there as fast as we can, okay?
Now.
Right now.
We're heading there right now.
Okay, thank you.
In Florida, we have over one million alligators, and we have 14 million people, so we have an alligator for every 14 people.
ñ And the alligator habitat is continuing to shrink every year.
There's less and less alligator habitat, but the alligator population is going up.
They're continuing to breed and reproduce.
It's the alligator breeding season and the alligators are becoming very territorial.
They're fighting among themselves, chasing each other out of the area, and eventually they're ending up in the urban environment.
They're really alligators looking for love in all the wrong places.
McGILLIN: Unwelcome alligators turn up in some 8,000 places a year.
Todd Hardwick is not the only rescuer available to retrieve them, but he gets his share.
The state of Florida licenses him to relocate the small ones, and to sell the largest as meat and skin.
( motorboat humming ) To youngsters playing in this lake, alligators can be more than a nuisance; they can kill.
Todd is surprised to find the kids playing here.
He's already baited the shoreline to trap some alligators reported earlier, and he warned local residents to stay away.
HARDWICK: Two of them reported out here, Jill-- a ten-footer and a six-footer.
I came out last night in the rain and set some baits.
I think we got one on this one here.
See some movement?
Hopefully this isn't the ten-footer.
I'd hate to go in the water with one that size.
Whoa!
McGILLIN: Todd and his team usually set their snares overnight, and bait them with fish or with an animal killed on the highway.
Now they have an angry alligator in the net.
All they have to do is get it from there to the truck.
Tighten down, tighten down.
Get him off my legs.
I don't have him.
Tighten up, tighten up!
All right, let's try to get him on land.
Watch your feet.
( chuckles ) You got tape with you?
Yeah.
I don't have him real good.
JILL: Hurry.
Hold him steady.
Let's get some tape on this guy.
Hold him tight.
Even with his mouth taped shut, the alligator will throw his extremely hard, bony head and jaw against your shin or ankle and can actually break a bone.
The tail is quite dangerous.
The scoots on this alligator are bony and rigid.
And every part of this animal can and has bruised and can severely injure you.
Come here.
You guys know there's a ten-foot alligator out here?
Oh, yeah?
Yeah, there's two alligators.
There's an eight-footer, and a ten- to 12-footer.
We just caught the eight-footer.
See him in the back of my truck?
Hey, you better get in here.
( laughs ): It's a big old alligator.
The big one is out here where you're playing.
Okay.
You didn't know there was alligators out here?
You're not afraid?
You guys want to see the one we just caught?
Yeah, yeah!
Come on up here.
( alligator thrashes ) Yeah!
( laughs ) Oh, yeah.
Come on up here a minute.
This is the baby.
The baby?
The baby.
You're out there playing with the momma... or the daddy.
They say he's ten foot or bigger.
You look pretty tasty dragging behind that boat.
( boys laugh ) Man, the skin's soft.
Well, you guys, be careful out there.
( cell phone rings ) HARDWICK: Pesky Critters.
In the backyard?
The patio.
We're on our way, okay.
McGILLIN: The problem is even greater in India.
Millions of years ago, the rivers teemed with crocodiles.
Now they teem with people.
The river is central to these people's daily lives, so much so, it is considered sacred.
When life is over, it is to the sacred river they commit their dead.
It would seem there is simply no room for crocodiles.
Those that were here were killed long ago.
They were killed not out of fear, but because crocodiles eat fish-- vital food in a crowded country.
India's marsh crocodiles, or muggers, certainly do eat fish, but more importantly, they also prey on animals like otters, that eat many more fish.
So these crocodiles are crucial in maintaining healthy fish stocks.
But the problem is one of perception.
Fishermen have hunted the crocs almost to extinction.
The Madras Crocodile Bank was set up to save these reptiles.
They hold in reserve here a healthy genetic stock ready to be released into the wild.
The only problem?
No one wants them there.
People have always been frightened of them, and they still regard crocs as competitors for food.
Rom Whitaker and his son have been left holding the babies-- several thousand of them.
Their main task now is to educate the public about the need for wild crocodiles.
When I first started doing crocodile surveys in India in the early '70s, it was very apparent that India's crocodilians were in very, very bad shape.
They were really on their way out, especially the saltwater crocodile and the gharial.
And one of the measures to sort of help things out would be to start breeding them in captivity and then offer them for restocking back to the wild, which is what we did.
And I started gathering up crocodiles from here and there.
I had about a dozen adults and 50 babies to begin with, and ultimately we ended up with over 5,000 crocodiles, which is what it is today.
And we've been able to supply nearly a thousand of them to various restocking projects around the country.
And I think we've contributed quite a bit in the way of public education, too, because nearly a million people a year come to the croc bank.
Films are made about it, and... on TV, local TV, radio, interviews, and magazine articles and stuff, all which helped to sort of demystify the crocodile, and make people at least, if not love them, at least, you know, put up with the idea that they are a creature on this planet which has some value and considerable interest.
McGILLIN: On a hot afternoon in Madras, [CÑ7visitors can see more mugger crocodiles here than in a lifetime in the wild.
They're breeding too well.
But crocodiles lay eggs, p and the staff and some local monitor lizards are eating as many as they can.
Outside the crocodile bank, these animals could be vital to the future health of India's rivers and lakes.
As the master predator-scavenger in the aquatic ecosystem, crocodiles have got to be there if it's going to be a healthy ecosystem.
And it might be a little bit difficult to explain this to the fishermen but I think they do make sense out of the fact that crocodiles eat a lot of the predators of fish.
They're essential to any good fisheries.
McGILLIN: Meanwhile, as they struggle to control their success at getting muggers to breed, they're having a problem with their saltwater croc.
He's one of India's last giant crocodiles, and they've called him Jaws.
But he's not very gentle with his ladies.
Jaws is our biggest crocodile.
In fact, Jaws is a 15-foot saltwater crocodile and the biggest captive croc in India.
He's always been a loner, and we just wanted to breed him up with one of the female salties here, because, well, he's got the genes of the biggest crocs around.
And we've tried this twice now.
We've put females in with him.
And the first time, he really trashed the female quite badly.
She was not badly injured, but he picked her up and threw her out, right out of the water.
And she was nine feet long.
It was just quite startling to see it.
So this time, we've tried to do it a little more scientifically by putting a barrier right across the enclosure, right through the pond.
( men exclaiming ) McGILLIN: The tricky part is transferring a suitable female from one of the other pens.
( men yell ) WHITAKER: Yeah, I think ultimately, we will find a female who's compatible with Jaws.
I mean, they're just like any other animals.
There's a very definite compatibility factor here, and he's used to being alone all these years, and suddenly chuck a female in with him...
He's got to get used to her.
They've got to smell each other.
They've got to get to know each other.
And then I'm sure it will happen.
McGILLIN: Northern Australian coasts and rivers are strongholds for saltwater crocodiles.
This female has mated successfully and will soon be laying her eggs.
She's already built her nest, a heap of sticks and leaves that will create its own heat and humidity.
It will be a natural incubator, its temperature influencing the sex of her offspring.
But she'll not bury her eggs within it until nightfall.
Till then, she guards her nest site from other females.
In a trancelike state, she begins to lay.
It's a moment Rob Briedl has been waiting for.
Good morning.
( rooster crows ) 2:30 a.m., in the morning.
We've been sitting, watching this nest for around a week now to get this crocodile laying.
It's believed that crocodiles go into a state of torpor.
We're going to test whether that's true or not, because it's closer than I've been before.
We'll just touch her on the body with my stick.
And she's not moving.
A little bit of a movement there.
She looks like she's actually dropping an egg right now.
She's actually got both her legs positioned, holding herself off the nest, so the little eggs are going to be dropping into the hole.
Her feet seem to be funneling the eggs down, in fact.
That's definitely a state of torpor.
Oh, she just dropped one.
Jeez, that hole is deep.
There's one.
This is the first time this has ever been filmed-- taking an egg from a crocodile as she lays it.
I've been playing with them for 24 years.
This is the first time this has happened.
I'll tell you, it's really exciting.
McGILLIN: Just why the mother should be torpid isn't known.
She'll lay between 40 and 60 eggs.
If the temperature inside the deep nest is high, most of the young crocs will be male.
She'll cover the eggs and watch over the nest until they hatch.
In Africa, crocodiles build a very different type of nest.
This female crocodile has laid her eggs in sand less than 60 yards from the river.
The sand she's covering them with will keep the eggs at a modest temperature, hidden from the glaring sun, which could dry them out.
She's compacting the sand firmly, and apart from a few cooling visits to the river, she'll be on guard at the nest for 90 days without eating.
Her eggs are always at risk from egg thieves, such as a monitor lizard or a mongoose.
A mongoose is wary of crocodiles, and the eggs of a mother on guard are safe.
But this nest is vulnerable.
The crocodile is away for a moment, cooling in the river.
The eggs were almost ready to hatch.
In Florida, an alligator mother, away from her eggs, is being called to the nest by the sound of the hatchlings.
( hatchlings squawking ) Cries from both inside the eggs and from emerging youngsters summon her to their aid and protection.
( squawking ) She can't resist their calling.
Instinctively, she clambers up to the nest.ógoñg ( squawking ) The eggs were laid deep in a mound of soil and vegetation, and some hatchlings need help to get up out of the heap.
Though large and heavy, the mother is surprisingly gentle at finding her family.
Mother's next instinctive duty is to get her young down to the water.
Remarkably, she ferries some of them there in a pouch inside her enormous mouth.
While she's busy, others strike out on their own-- a risky journey with so many herons, egrets and snakes around.
Once in the water, they'll seek safety in numbers-- clustering among the water plants-- and they call to each other to stay in touch.
( hatchling squawks ) Mother's not far away, and may remain close to them for months, or even a couple of years.
They can't look to her for food.
They are fully equipped to hunt and must fend for themselves.
But it's foolish to stray too far.
Only one in a hundred will make it to adulthood.
Parental care can only go so far.
For the young alligators, or these Nile crocodiles, it's a jungle out there.
Mother's jaws can tear a hefty wildebeest to pieces, but when she gathers her young into the cage of her teeth, she's gentleness itself.
Safe in the pouch of her mouth, she delivers some of her family to the water.
These are the lucky ones.
A hungry monitor lizard is exploring the unguarded nest, and its efforts are rewarded.
While young, even these top predators are bottom of the heap.
Fish, fowl, reptiles and mammals plunder the crocodile's young.
But there are ways of fighting back.
Young caimans in Venezuela have been clustered together in a "caiman crèche."
So much prey in one pond seems to confuse predators.
There are hundreds of youngsters, all in the care of one adult, a single "nursemaid" in charge of everyone's offspring.
But for how long are any young crocodiles safe from their own kind?
As a baby, this youngster was at no risk from adult crocs, but from about the time it turned one year old, it's been on the menu.
For the first four or five years of its life, it needs to be wary of adults that may associate its size with prey, and not recognize it as "one of them."
It's the right size, and the top predator asks no other questions.
12 years old, and a crocodile is maturing fast.
In a year or so, a male will have a territory and be looking for a mate.
The crocodile is now the ultimate predator, and everything is potential food.
There is only one relatively new problem... We're on the menu.
Crocodiles have lived hundreds of millions of years without us, and have no particular grudge against us; we simply look and move like any other prey.
( cattle lowing ) Even a grown man is an easy target for a large crocodile, yet some people have to live with them.
The real problem with crocodile attacks around the world is with the people who live in the exact same areas the crocodiles live in.
It's not with the people who live in the cities around the world, who do their hunting and gathering in supermarkets.
It's with the people who depend on the same areas as the crocodiles do for their water, for their food, for their livelihoods.
This is where most of the world's crocodile attacks occur, because everyone's survival is dependent on using the exact same resource.
They're in full competition.
McGILLIN: In Australia, residents relax around crocodile- infested waters.
There are plenty of signs, warnings and instructions, but where people relax, common sense often forsakes them entirely.
Forget for one moment that a crocodile is "the boss," that you are on his turf, and that you look like food to him, and you'll make the evening news... MAN: Trying to drag Mrs. Pankley to the river, the croc lacerated her chest and liver.
She's now in intensive care in Darwin.
MAN 2: Meadows is the second person to die a gruesome death following crocodile attacks in the past two weeks.
MAN 3: Conservation commission rangers then began their hunt for the suspected killer croc in earnest, and in the small hours of Thursday morning they caught and killed the 4½-meter monster.
A quick examination of its stomach contents revealed more decaying human remains.
The severed head of the slaughtered reptile... What makes crocodiles so dangerous is they can hide in almost nothing, they can hold their breath for hours and lay motionless for hours.
They're what I call "the ultimate waiter."
Now, here, the water isn't very deep, you'll notice.
That's how deep it is... about there.
Yet there's a big fellow just lying there, nearly four meters long and 400 kilos.
If I splash something in the water, watch.
Whop!
He's got you!
McGILLIN: It could have been the reptile's primeval ferocity that led the first settlers of crocodile country to hunt them so mercilessly.
Hundreds of thousands were slaughtered.
In Australia, the saltwater crocodile was almost extinct by the 1970s.
But today, that's all changing.
Crocodile farming is becoming big business.
A growing number of crocodiles are raised on farms like this one, from eggs collected in the wild.
The farmers profit from sales of meat and skin, and from tourism, all of which is licensed and controlled by the government.
Ironically, it's in everyone's best interest to protect wild crocodiles and their nesting sites as an ongoing resource.
Everyone wins: conservationists, ecologists and the farmers.
What we've learned over the last 30 years is that you can't isolate crocodiles and look after them in a national park.
The answer to crocodile survival is for people to depend on crocodiles and for crocodiles to depend on people.
Once the crocodile's life and the people's life are dependent on each other, then they both tend to look after each other.
WHITAKER: Well, you can't help but be impressed by a crocodile.
I mean, some people might call them "the ultimate killing machines," but that's just part of it; they're also "the ultimate submarines."
And they're just so impressive-- a kind of reptilian intelligence which is a bit scary.
They're able to think and work things out.
Speed, curiosity and a survivorship like no other animal in the world.
BRIEDL: The future of crocodiles?
I think it's pretty good.
My aim is to show people that crocodiles are totally instinctive, and that we can live with them side by side; we just have to understand him.
He's been around for over 240 million years and I think he's going to see us out, too.
I think he's pretty secure.
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COME ON UP HERE A MINUTE.
THIS IS THE BABY.
THE BABY?
THE BABY -- YOU'RE OUT THERE PLAYING WITH THE MAMA.
OR THE DADDY.
THEY SAY HE'S 10 FOOT OR BIGGER.
YOU LOOK PRETTY TASTY, DRAGGING BEHIND THAT BOAT.
[ LAUGHING ] THE SENSES OF THE CROCODILE ARE ALL CONCENTRATED AROUND THE HEAD, AND IT'S REALLY QUITE A REMARKABLE SORT OF SYSTEM, BECAUSE WHAT YOU HAVE IS, THEY CAN BREATHE THROUGH THE END OF THE SNOUT...
IF I SPLASH SOMETHING IN THE WATER, WATCH.
WHAT?
HE'S GOTCHA.
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