- [Coyote] Hi Mark this is it the moment we've all
been waiting for. You guys ready to see me
feed the saltwater crocodile? - [Mark] Let's see it. (water splashing) - [Coyote] Okay,
he's got the rooster. - [Mark] He's got you
fully extended right now. (Coyote groans) (jungle music) (roar) - [Coyote] Australia's
expansive landscapes are breathtakingly beautiful and with beauty
sometimes comes danger. In fact this continent is home to the world's most
dangerous animals. When it comes to venomous bites the land down under stakes claim to the planets most venomous
spider and snake species. If you are a human and
receive just a single bite from a creature such as
the Sydney funnel-web or the eastern brown it
means almost certain doom without a heavy
dose of anti-venom. Aside from the toxic bites there are also the bone
crushing and limb ripping powers of the continents most
dangerous nonvenomous reptile the saltwater crocodile. Capable of reaching
over 20 feet in length these massive reptiles
can tip the scales at nearly 2,500 pounds making it the largest riparian
predator in the world. (water splashing) (chomping) Today we are headed back to the Billabong
Wildlife Sanctuary. Located just outside
of Townsville this establishment is
considered to be one of Australia's top
ecotourism attractions. And one of its biggest draws is their enormous saltwater
crocodile named Bully. No I will not be getting bitten by this prehistoric
looking behemoth however I will get the
chance to work alongside Jeremy and Chris two of
Billabong's top animal experts. Today they will be giving me a crash course in
crocodile feeding which is much more challenging
than you might imagine. The ultimate goal is
for me to feed Bully however before I take
on that dangerous feat I'm going to practice
by feeding the smaller and supposedly more docile
freshwater crocodiles. A much more narrow snout
than the American alligator or of course the
saltwater crocodile and that's primarily because
these guys feed on fish right? - [Chris] Exactly right so
a long skinny narrow snout, sharp regular shaped teeth for catching those
fast moving prey. - Now where as the
saltwater crocodile's looking to lunge up
off an embankment, grab something, drag
it down into the water, drown it and then crush
it as it begins to eat it. - Exactly right, we've
almost two and a half tons of closing force all they
have to do is hold on. - Wow now where
does the bite force of the freshie
compare to the saltie? - [Chris] Well
there's no where near comparison to the
Australian crocodile. Again these guys can potentially
feed on small turtles so they do still have quite
a bit of pressure there. But again the species
is oftentimes swallowing it's prey whole
so it doesn't need that significant amount
of closing pressure. - [Coyote] Now what's the tactic
for feeding these freshies, do you just throw stuff
down in there to 'em or can we get 'em to be
a little more active? - [Chris] No we'll
get 'em up jumping. So we're gonna suspend
a bit of chicken off the end of a bamboo pole. (snap) - [Coyote] Whoa! The snap
of those jaws is crazy loud! - We're getting them
to jump for their food effectively working
for their food and then they'll get that reward of the actual chicken today. - Okay cool well what
I want to test out with the saltwater crocodile
is being able to film off the end of the bamboo
pole with a GoPro camera so let's test that out here
and see if it actually works. I think we have less of a
chance of losing this camera to the freshies than we
do the saltwater croc. Alright here we go let's
feed the crocodiles. Alright what I'm gonna do Chris is just follow your
piece of chicken in I'll make sure to keep the
GoPro back away from those jaws. And let's see if we can
get some good jumps. (chomping) (growling) Wow that's intimidating. I mean this isn't the largest
crocodile I've ever seen but that sound definitely
says you better back up I'm getting the chicken first. - [Chris] Got it, look at that. Get the food and take
it down into the water. Oh look at that one going
after the challenge. (snap) - [Coyote] Oooh almost got
the camera did you see that? - [Mark] Ready? - Alright here we go
this is my shot at it can I keep the chicken
away from the crocodile? (snap)
Oh, good shot he got it. (growling) Oh he got it, I thought
maybe if he started to let go I could get it back
out of his jaws. Wow they're a lot
- [Chris] They're strong. - quicker than I thought, I thought I'd have
enough time to react as the crocodile
started to jump. Okay now I can kind of
see how quick they are let me take one
more shot at that. (snap) (snap) - [Mark] Even the
little one's coming in. (growling) Sounds like a pack
of dinosaurs Coyote. - [Coyote] It does. (growling) (snap) (snap)
(dramatic music) - [Mark] I think this guy's
gonna deserve the reward. He's jumping really nicely. - [Coyote] Some loud
jaw pops too, woo! Watch your camera. - [Mark] Oooh! (laughs) - [Coyote] Don't
lose that camera it's got good footage on it. - [Mark] It dinged the edge. - [Coyote] Yeah a lot
quicker than you think huh? - [Mark] Yeah they're fast - [Coyote] Little freshies. - [Mark] Wow. - Okay well I think I understand the strength and the speed
of the freshwater crocodile. If you guys are ready
I think I'm ready to go feed the saltie.
- [Mark] Let's do it! - Alright here we go. - Alright guys so today
what we're gonna do is we're gonna get Bully
jumping off the platform for you guys and
your gonna feed him. - Yeah.
- No pressure. - No not at all. - So what we're gonna do is Jeremy's gonna go
in the enclosure for you guys to film in
different perspective so obviously just listen
to him if he says out, out. - [Coyote] Okay so Mario and Ben will be inside the
enclosure then. - [Chris] Yes. - [Coyote] And
that's cool, okay. - And then what
we're gonna do is I'll initially engage
Bully from the platform. Mwuan, Mwuan. Mwuan. (tapping) Here he comes.
Mwaun (kicking fence) Mwuan. - [Coyote] So what do we
have in the buckets here? - Yeah we've got some--
- [Coyote] Looks bloody. - [Chris] (laughs) We
have some roosters today and they're full of
feathers which is great for crocodiles because the
bigger the food item looks the more intense they're gonna
be about getting their food. - Big meal big jump.
- Right. Big animal. - Who's gonna dive in after
the camera if it does fall in. (laughing) - You ready? - Ha ha, I mean as
ready as I'm gonna be. - I didn't think
I would be nervous to step out on that platform
until it got to this moment where it's like, okay now
you're going on the platform to feed the 1500 pound
saltwater crocodile. Now the rest of the
team is getting set up we have the dead
roosters in the buckets we're gonna position
them on the bamboo poles. Cameras are about to be set up and then not much left to do
other than feed the beast. - (laughs) This is a
nervous smile right now. - Yeah I know I'm really excited but at the same
time really nervous and the nervousness
didn't set in until you saw the
crocodile come down through that little
narrow passageway and then disappear
into the murky water just beneath the platform. So stepping out
onto that platform realizing that this
1500 pound giant is literally beneath the surface and it's going to erupt
from the murky water and chomp at those roosters is
gonna be pretty intimidating. Are you guys ready over there? - We're ready. - [Cameraman] As
ready as I'll ever be. - [Coyote] Alright
let's bring out Bully. - Let's see what sort
of a mood he's in. (splashing)
(jaws snapping) - Wow you hear the
power in those jaws? Okay so we're trying to get
Bully up into the shallows here. Chris has got half a rooster
on the end of his bamboo pole and Bully is just
slowly moving beneath-- (loud splash)
Whoa there we go! (jaws chomping) He's got the wing! (chomping) The clapping of those jaws,
just the power and the pressure, is unbelievable, woo! You see that water
come out of his nose? Bully got the rooster
and he won't come back up so we can get it
out of his mouth and that's one of the things
about saltwater crocodiles once they catch their prey they
will sink down to the bottom and just sit there with it
in their jaws until it drowns then they have the
opportunity to eat it. And right now Bully is thinking
okay I've got the rooster I'm gonna drown it, I'm
gonna make you guys wait until I'm ready to
come up and eat it. This might be that moment. Come on Bully give it back. Here we go, here we go. (chomping)
Nice. Hey we got the rooster back! - [Chris] One more jump and then we'll hand
over to you I think. Mwaun. (jaws smacking)
(water splashing) - That was a big one right
there did you see that? Alright Mark this is it the moment we've
all been waiting for I'm about to switch
positions with Chris. He's gonna take the camera and
I'm gonna take the rooster. You guys ready to see me
feed the saltwater crocodile? - [Mark] Let's see it. - Alright here we go! Alright Chris this
camera is rolling. I'll trade ya positions, now let's see if I've
learned anything here. Alright here we go, it's
breakfast time buddy. (jaws smacking) He literally, one chomp, ripped the rooster
right from the pole. (laughs) Well good job Bully I think he knew
that I was a rookie. Literally a single
swipe of his head and the rooster was gone. In all fairness though
I think the rope got pretty saturated and
it was the rope guys! It was the rope! (laughing) - [Mark] Do we have
any more rooster? - I think we've got another
rooster though don't we? - [Chris] We do we do, yup. - Let's reload! Alright guys this is
my second attempt at it now what Chris said
is to keep the rooster right off the front
of Bully's snout. The big mistake that I made
is that I put the rooster right next to his jaws
and just that quick he was able to chomp on to it and rip it from the bamboo pole. So here we go rooster number two is about to go down
into the danger zone. Trying to tempt
Bully up right now. Just a little bit of tap
of the rooster on the water should bring his head up. Got a fresh one
for ya here Bully. This is a big one, this is
the big meal right here. (water splashing)
Woo! There he is! (laughs) I think his head's still right,
oh there he is, there he is. (jaws smashing)
(water splashing) Okay he found the rooster,
not gonna pull though. - [Chris] As he lifts his
head up, opens his jaws, that's when I'm gonna put
a little bit of pressure out to the side.
- [Coyote] Okay. - [Chris] I'll wait for
him to bring his head up to the surface just try to
give him a bit of slack. - [Coyote] Okay. Oh boy.
He's got the rooster. Wow he's so powerful. You can feel just how
heavy and powerful the jaws are through that
little piece of twine and the rooster
being in it's mouth. - [Chris] Now we're gonna
start pulling straight out the tip of his snout and
angle the stick that way. And then as he struggles,
that's it keep going, one more almost there. - Oh he's trying to take it. Giving him some slack. Trying to provide just
a little bit of tension and that almost had it
totally out of his mouth and then he got
it back in there. I just got to wait it out now he has the entire rooster
locked in his jaws and the only shot
of getting it back is when he comes
up to the surface and tries to manipulate
it within his jaws. And when he does that I
can slowly work it out and then we'll have another
shot of getting him to jump. - [Mark] He's coming
up, there he is. - [Coyote] Oh no he's
pulling that way. No, no. - [Chris] Just a
little bit of pressure back on this side
assuming it's safe. - [Coyote] I'm just hoping
that that rope doesn't break. - [Mark] Coy your fully
extended right now. - [Coyote] Aghhh.
He's trying to take it back. Into his corner. I got a good hold of him now. As long as that
twine doesn't break we're gonna be in good shape. (Coyote groans) It's just like when you
catch an enormous fish on a fishing line you don't
want to apply too much pressure. Just want to slowly work
it in this direction. Okay he's coming back here.
Whoa! - [Chris] Oh he did
the head shake, nice. - Come on Bully you can do it. Believe it or not
I'm actually... Aghhh, he got the rooster. He was either gonna
get the rooster or he was gonna
get the whole pole. Man that was crazy! And he basically said at
that point, rooster is mine. Well Bully has gotten
both of the roosters and we did get a couple
of cool jumps out of him. I'd definitely say that
Chris has the expertise when it comes to tempting the
enormous saltwater crocodile up from beneath
the murky surface but for me this was an
incredible experience here at the Billabong Sanctuary. Getting to feed the apex
predator of Australia the saltwater crocodile. I'm Coyote Peterson be brave, stay wild, we'll
see ya on the next adventure! The saltwater crocodile is
one of the most intimidating apex predators I
have ever worked with and it's almost
impossible to describe how dangerous
these reptiles are. Yet attacks on humans are rare. In fact over the past 40 years there have only been
around 100 fatal attacks. And continued efforts
by wildlife officials to post crocodile warning signs
near at risk water sources have made a significant impact in keeping attack numbers low. As for Bully if you ever
happen to be near Townsville and want to see this
iconic reptile in action Chris and Jeremy feed him as part of a live educational
show every single day. So make sure to visit
the Billabong Sanctuary and trust me when I say when you see a massive
crocodile leap from the water is one of the most incredible
displays of animal power you will ever see. (water splashing) If you thought feeding
Bully was dangerous make sure and go back
and watch the episode where I fed Wanda the wombat
and almost got chomped. Yikes, look out Coyote. And don't forget, subscribe, so you can join me and the crew on this season of
Breaking Trail.
