A croc named Nifty

We met a croc named Nifty on the Adelaide River, about 100 km south of Darwin. Nifty is an alpha male saltie, who weighs about 800 kg and is about 5.5 m long.

Our guide on the river was a character named Pat. Pat has long hair, a long beard, carries a gun and a bowie knife in his role as croc guide, and is perenially barefoot. He smokes rollies and drinks only milk. But he does know his saltwater crocodiles.

Alpha male saltwater crocs (yes, they live in freshwater too) each maintain a territory of about 1.5 km. Any male croc that enters that territory is summarily despatched by the reigning alpha. We met three alpha males on our tour: Nifty, Brutus and Aggro. (As well as assorted female salties, including a gal named Snappy in the two photos below. Females are much smaller than the males. Positively delicate flowers ...)

There are only four licensed tour operators on the Adelaide River. Three of the four offer tours to see 'jumping crocodiles'. What this involves is holding a chicken carcass in the air high above the water, and the crocodile launches itself into the air to grab the meat.

Pat is scathing about this practice. He maintains that the whole raison d'être of being a crocodile is to stay hidden. By jumping into the air and splashing around in the middle of the river, the crocs are signalling to other crocs (which are all mortal foes — it's the natural way of croc-dom): 'Here I am! Come and get me!'

So Pat does not offer jumping croc tours. He nudges the boat into the side of the river, where the crocs naturally hide, and lures the crocs to the boat by dangling the chicken carcass in/just above the water. When these huge beasts suddenly emerge from the water next to the boat, the only ones to jump are the tourists. And yes, we did.

Blow me down if the inestimable NT News last night didn't headline ol' Nifty taking out a jumping croc — exactly as foretold by Pat.

Sadly the croc fight is behind an NT News paywall, but here are a couple of Ken's videos as consolation.