Northern Territory crocodiles are again proving they take no shit from anyone after a particularly aggressive salty took umbrage at being filmed by an ABC News camera crew.
The crew for the public broadcaster was filming in the Top End for an upcoming documentary to be called Crocodile Territory.
The documentary was set to mark the 50th anniversary of the ban on hunting the ancient reptiles in the Northern Territory.
ABC cameraman Dane Hirst was manning the drone when the cranky croc struck.
Hirst telling the ABC: “I set the drone up over a small lagoon at Crocodylus Park, and all the crocs were really skittish.
“But there was one crocodile in particular that was holding its ground and really eyeballing the drone.
“So I thought, great, I’ll use this fellow, he’s in a stationary spot. I can get some decent shots of him.
“I lined the drone up and moved over the top of him, and as I was doing that I looked up towards the lagoon and saw a crocodile vertical out of the water and heard the great clamping noise of a crocodile’s jaws coming together.”
The drone – on its maiden flight – was later recovered, inoperable, and with large teeth marks bitten into it.
It’s believed the croc swallowed the drone whole, but later regurgitated the device.
It had been damaged beyond repair but the card with the footage survived, enabling the team to retrieve what had been shot.
Check out the footage below:
