Crocs Down Under [Steve Irwin Documentary] | Real Wild

in the northeastern corner of Australia where the top end meets the sea lurks a relic from the days of the dinosaurs the saltwater crocodile one of the most fearsome predators on the face of the earth but even salty had this sweeter side like most wild animals they just want to be left alone to be breed and rear their young [Music] Crocs are complex creatures finely tuned to their surroundings [Music] but since this grows into this it's easy to see why their reputation goes before them this is an Australian saltwater crocodile and you've got to be really kept when you're dealing around the huge predator they've got volatile speed and very very powerful I'm steve-o and I've been around big saltwater crocodiles all of my life Crocs and people normally give each other a wide berth but most of the Crocs here at my park in Queensland had to be removed from the wild because they crossed the line and became a threat to humans if we'd left them where they were they'd have probably ended up being shot and you can't lock them all up I'm hoping to come up with a better solution we call this desperado aggro he's the wildest croc we've got in the past and right now he's hungry I want to give my Crocs as natural life as possible which means there's wild pig on the menu and I'm using myself as live bait watch a grouse flip into an ambush position right now I've got no idea of knowing where he'll strike from he's made himself completely invisible Wow aggro by name hand by nature he's a real hungry animal feral pig vent food source the very territorial got to be really careful when you entered into his territory got to play by his rules here in Australia they call me the crocodile man when a clock like a grouse starts playing up I'm often the first one to hear about it I've just had a call about another problem croc so this time I won't be bringing him back to the park I want to try a new idea rocks like aggro can live for a hundred years and they have long memory I want to see if we can teach them to mend their ways give them a lesson they'll never forget if it works we can leave them where they belong in the wild an operation like this takes teamwork that's where my wife Teri comes in and where's my right-hand man bit like tied down between Mary what are you doing at least hands won't fall off right and I wouldn't go anywhere without dagger we've got a long journey ahead of us to catch up with the latest troublemaker from our starting point near Brisbane it's a three day drive north into croc country salt water crops are found right across the top end of Australia until they were protected in the 70s they were heavily hunted for their valuable skins now populations are recovering but more and more people are entering crocodile territory even in the most remote areas and that means trouble we're headed to Lakefield National Park a key area for crocodile conservation it's November the end of the dry season and the coastal wetlands are parched even the rivers eventually dry up any water that's left becomes very precious [Music] with temperatures over a hundred degrees the best thing to do is while away the day in a shady wallow keeping cool is a top priority like all reptiles a Crocs body temperature is governed by its surroundings this one looks like a big old male older Crocs are usually darker in color this lighter specimen is a much younger croc in croc Society there's only room for one king of the pond the biggest strongest male will drive any rival out of his domain he's usually the one hassling humans too but if you take him away you disrupt the hierarchy of the croc community weaker males will fight for his crown and mate with the females passing on weaker genes despite their name Salty's aren't confined to tidal regions they also inhabit freshwater lagoons there they rub shoulders with Australia's other croc the smaller freshwater variety far less aggressive than its much larger relative freshies are too small to do you or me any real damage but this little bird is pushing its luck you can tell a freshie from a salty by its long narrow snout well worth knowing when you're out in the bush while freshies eats small prey like crayfish or even insects a salty might fancy a piece of you during the dry water acts like a magnet for all kinds of Wildlife a mobile menu for the Crocs wild pigs destroy the riverbanks rooting for food since being introduced to Australia from Europe they've become a real pest all this wildlife attracts human visitors to the waterhole - it's a favorite spot for campers and bird watchers in these peaceful surroundings people tend to forget what could be lurking in the water berry Lake Fields head Ranger is there to remind them that this is salty territory and that requires some respect croc attacks on humans are very rare one death every two or three years in Australia but when they do strike that's it it's game over and a big salty can easily hide in shallow murky water after three days on the road I'm itching to get on with a job when we arrived at lake field we're met by Barry and his fellow Rangers from the national parks who guide us to the travel spot because of the problem croc the area's closed to the public at the moment this is our destination Old Faithful waterhole and Barry tells me there's a big male being hanging around the campsite it's the perfect salty stamping ground plenty of shade and these high banks make great nesting sites but humans like it too here's where the conflict begins this is a really popular fishing hole when the fishermen come back and clean their fish they leave their scales and offal in and around the water and that creates a free feed for the crocodile these bullet shells are a result of the fishermen getting scared they see a croc they think it's stalking them boom they take a pot shot at it I'm here to help humans but also protect the crocodile first I want to have a scout around the area with the help of Barry and his fellow Ranger Ron this is their patch of Bush and they can show me any signs of recent croc activity that way I'll know the best place to set up a couple of traps meanwhile Terry has got to be pretty busy setting up camp the bank opposite is the best place for me to start it's an ideal basking area for a croc nice gentle slope down to the water Ron soon spots something like a nice little wall over real light be about a when you wreck about 9 foot spearmen about that oh yeah slide marks in there beautiful cool location for spend a bit of time then a little bit when you reckon should use a while I thought long ago last night or this morning even well there's obviously a female around but it's the big male we're after and I reckon is somewhere close by this is a great crocodile slide exactly what we're looking for it's got all the signs that we need here these footprints and he's headed back down into the water you can see the distance between his footprints gives us an idea of his over 14 feet in length his belly's dragged on the ground as he's headed back towards the water this is a great place to set the trap he's coming up here to Sun himself beautiful basking area he's female just up there we'll set a trap pretty close by have a look at this it's the big bloke himself it's the breeding season and that always causes extra conflict maybe that's what got him all steamed up recently as he patrols his turf other Crocs steer well clear these young female swim quickly away raising their snouts to show they know who's boss an older female is more receptive to his advances he moves in as she signals her interest he's a gentle lover gradually they shift into a position for mating which takes place with the female fully submerged beneath the male with the dominant male occupied smaller males like this one might get a look-in on the mating front it's an opportunity not to be missed he quickly pairs off with a young female resting on a handy mud bank to mate there's no time to lose if the big guy spots this invasion of his territory he'll attack without hesitation but this time the young males got away with it for me in the team it's time to get to work this is the ideal location for our crocodile trap site this is a natural gully and I'm going to utilize the crocodiles keen sense of smell to lure him in I'm going to run barricades up each side of the trap because I've seen crocodiles coming from the side get a scare or kill the trap and then retreat we want incoming up right up to the back of the trap and grabbing hold of that big piece of bait so what i'm doing here is placing these sticks i don't use steel or star pickets in my trap design because when the croc comes in and he fighting you can hit these sticks and he can't hurt himself whereas if he bumps into steel he can break his teeth or scar his head hurt his eye so there's a break and get out of the way so we'll run a stream from up here and along the other side to support the trap second mom grab a corner here it's a corner here so what you delight here is breakable hemp string that's are tied onto the tree which supports the weight of the trap and holds it into position just a couple of simple knots so as when the crop goes inside the track grabs hold of it and struggles the string breaks off and the trap will drop loose around him so the croc hasn't got a vantage point where you can get in and actually break through the trap this is the trigger mechanism it's absolutely crucial so we have a nail low and a nail high and let's support a little steel rod which holds the weight bags up when the croc grabs hold of the bait that pulls the weight bag down he goes meanwhile where's a spotted our target croc will be back here looks like he's checking us out it's probably his curiosity that got him into trouble in the first place he's a big one all right at least a 14-footer we're up to the final job now placing the bait this is a feral pig big saltwater croc find these irresistible got to get the big chunk of bait up there and a leading bait at the front to lure him in you've been hanging around I'm just a little bit nervous what I'm going to do is split the pig open let its blood run down soak into the sand so mmm got that real pig aroma this is the last job leading bait now what I utilize is really strong nylon cord such that only a crocodile can break it and I string it off the ground so as when the croc comes up smells it and bite it I'll be able to get a set of claw marks here and to distinguish if it's my target crocodile or not it's just coming on too dark I'm starting to get a little bit nervy hanging so close to the water right Oh fellas let's go the end of the day is a beautiful time in Lakeville many of the parks nocturnal residents are just beginning to stir including one of the world's largest populations of that little red flying box there are 10 million in this colony three times as many as the number of people in Sydney Australia's largest city magpie geese have started gathering to flying into their favourite wetland breeding site but they won't start nesting till the rains begin it's already getting cooler crops spent all night in the water which is warmer than the night air their reptile they've got to keep their body temperature stable now thanks mate we might call it an early one it's been a big day for me and the team Terry and I decide to have an early night but as we sleep others are at their most active this nesting females must have been one of the first to make this season [Music] she takes up to an hour to lay around fifty eggs the nest is a mound of dirt grass and twigs with a central chamber hollowed out [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] when she's finished laying she covers the eggs with rotting vegetation to keep them warm during incubation if all goes well they'll hatch in around ninety days time [Music] [Laughter] [Music] I've been awake half the night thinking about the traps and at first light Terry and I go to check them out the first one was empty but the other one looks promising looks like we've got one but is it the one we want this is a beautiful little female she'd only be around eight and a half feet just to maybe a bit more it's very important that we get her out of the trap and we release her straight away so we don't include eight our big male that were after isn't gorgeous our target male will have seen his trap female and will most certainly avoid this trap it's a good job we set two I'm just going to see if I can drag you up babe so get ready to move out of the way okay careful when they're over their bags I've got a gift in the safe pull pull pull pull pull pull walk that's it give them handle aggressive streaking her whole body beautiful young female absolutely gorgeous let's reset the track the female we caught probably hadn't started nesting yet it's still early in the season once a female does late she digs herself a wallow and sticks pretty close by to carry out repairs to the nest and protect the eggs from predators she gates keeping herself cool with the trap reset teri and I can take the time to have a look around looks like another crocodile nest up ahead wow what a little beauty oh cool I should have been a bit more alert now this is a protective female isn't this beautiful she must have laid her eggs last night and when the females later eggs the maternal instincts click in and she's come up wham-o get away from my eggs get away from my potential baby I'm going to do just that you're all right you're all right she'll probably guard the nest until the eggs are ready to hatch but it's a long job and not all mothers are so dedicated this nest is unattended and it's caught the eye of a peckish passerby wild pigs often eaten by adults Salty's balance the books by feeding on crocodile eggs this one takes just a few minutes to devour and destroy the entire clutch nobody goes hungry around the waterhole it's such a rich source of food these rock pools at the far end are teeming with life during the dry these permanent pools are refuge to a myriad of wildlife including freshies who do this here's the remains of last night's meal there yabbies crayfish and the freshy that ate them is probably still around there's 100 here have a look at this little boy Crikey's is fat as mud these water holes are just crawling with wildlife is yabby even fish biting at me which is perfect to these little pressures where you give me I should come in the water so cool these pools are also the perfect place to cool off I think this rock shot all shaded over and keep it cool but hang on a minute what's that looks like something else had the same idea it's a saying goanna another real ancient reptile and another predator of croc eggs if I can get close-up I'll show you just how big it is it's about five foot long one of the largest Wizards in Australia reptiles have been here for a lot longer than humans and they're better adapted to this rocky terrain that fork tongue tastes the air picking up any traces of a potential meal or a potential problem like the Crocs Joanna's a masters of their domain the product of nearly 100 million years of evolution this thirsty Wallabies not sure if the goanna is friend or foe faced with this puffed up throat it's not hanging around to find out back at Old Faithful it's now a waiting game for me and the team all we can do is keep checking the traps it's dawn again and me and Terry head to the trap opposite the campsite as we get closer we can see there's a croc in the net it's him first jobs get top jewel rival I'll just utilize a stick that way when he crunches down on it it'll break and it won't hurt the crocodile leather try and feed it between his jaws the top-drawer ropes vital for getting control over this huge animal it's a very intense moment the chance to try something nobody's ever tried before normally nuisance Crocs are shot locked up or relocated to a more remote area even that doesn't work Crocs have superb homing instincts and will travel hundreds of miles back to their own territory but if my hunch about being able to change their behavior is right we'll be able to leave them safely where they are and that's good news for humans and for Crocs of course he doesn't know that and right now he's got his jaws wide open in the attack position he's gonna go early you write night they don't fight often but when they do it's explosive power and that's rich talk to a road coming really hang here comes me team cues the hand to get the barricade off fellas berries brought reinforcements the more muscle power the better we need to we just need a moment to be sure what's the best thing to do we were going to build an enclosure to hold our croc overnight but looking at him now he's just too big I think we'll do maybe the most important thing is to cause him as little stress as possible despite their size Crocs are particularly sensitive to stress they're designed for short sharp bursts of action a long struggle can be fatal that's one of the drawbacks of removing them from the wild the journey alone can kill them we decide to leave him right where he is the other thing we don't want to do is sedate him that's another good way to kill a croc it puts his system under too much strain instead we want a calming down as quickly and naturally as possible through here with okay now make sure you can clear it just let it drop if I say go you guys with the weight on that seat holding good work fellas I'm going to keep going that's one flat fee okay I'm happy letting down done now that we've got him secured settled and relaxed quite comfortable I guess we'll get some buckets of water more cooling down keeping moist because we've decided to keeping overnight and we'll get lots of water in and around his cloaca region wash all this dead pig around so there's no chance of infection and try and keep you as happy as a pig in mud it's vital to keep your skin well watered it's tough but it can still dry out in the crack and a few hours in direct sunlight could be downright fatal he's a reptile so he can't regulate his own body temperature we've brought a big tarpaulin to provide some shade this is really nice and shady quite cool with that breeze blowing through it's important that we leave him alone now for a few hours just to let him relax Terry stays behind to keep an eye on him when night falls Barry and I return to the scene to educate our troublemaker about spotlights and votes we're hoping to teach him to link fisherman's lights and the sound of our boards with his experience in the trap that way when we release him he should be keen to keep away from we can't be sure we'll succeed but it's worth a try anything to keep him in the wild in the long night [Music] when dawn breaks Terry takes over from Barry but I want to see it right through to the end [Music] I really want this to work and I'm depending on our clocks long memory to do the trick at last it's time to let him go and again it's all hands on deck everyone's pretty quiet at this time in the morning including the crocodile okay grab the top two all roads in the anchor right what we'll do is in a minute we're just dragging towards the water okay dougie if you can just keep your draw right and down low Ronnie in your right okay when I call it I'm going to go on and hit your back of me right okay so I'm going to go in first weight on there the kindest and safest way to control a crock is to get as many people as you can to sit on him he's a huge strong animal and it doesn't do him any harm it's much better for him than giving him a sedative okay let's go into a seated position get your legs each side of you and get up as close as you can to each other because people are going to count the more we get on there the better are you confident like what sure yep okay because I'll be right here too okay right out you can drop it down and if you could get on the crocodile kind of scoot up as much as you can whatever you do babe don't don't complicate with okay Duggar let it go done from here on in if he starts to react we're going to have to ride it out there's no way you can get off or ball or do anything that's just we're stuck with it now this is it so just hang on the top two ropes the last to go grab the fatter on looking set up with I never get complacent about those snappers especially this close up get off in Wales and come round and lifting up someone else is going to have to lift the crop needs front legs out get your weight off in here ok now I need move up on the weak head tear there's a follow up to the neck it's a pretty tense moment everyone's got to be in exactly the right position okay so his whole body from the back legs has to come down towards the water okay when I call it I want everyone off exit out the back and stand like out the back of him I got the eyes I've got the eyes okay go covering his eyes helps keep him calm up until the last second he's less fearful if he can't see what's going on he's a little bit disorientated it takes in a minute to get his bearings he's a beautiful animal back where he belongs and that's the whole point of the exercise that's where we wanting to stay we'll be back later in the year to monitor the situation but for now we need to get out of the park far before the rainy season starts the roads will soon be flooded if you don't get out in time you can be stuck here for three months it does happen last year of German couple lifted too late and their higher truck was here all through the West must have cost them a bit more than they bargained for [Music] [Music] with the monsoon and rising flood levels male Crocs like to spend all their time in the water but nesting female must continue to guard their a [Music] other mothers take advantage of the new grass provides by the rains [Music] as do the thousands of magpie geese that fly into lake field to breed this thirsty dingo skin and bone after the harsh conditions of the dry can look forward to easier pickings to come food is more plentiful for all of Wakefield's inhabitant and the park is blue three months after we left Kari and I returned to Old Faithful to check on our problem croc the only way to find out if he's learned his lesson is to see how he reacts to our return we've been here for a couple of days and so far there's no sign of him but the waterhole is still flooded he might be further up or down the river the rains have been really heavy this year and for one mother it was a disaster the young female I disturbed back at the start of the breeding season didn't build her nest on high enough ground its water logged and the eggs are ruined but there's a new sound in the air around Old Faithful waterhole the female we saw laying has been successful deep in the nest some of her eggs have already hatched and the newborns are calling to their mother she clears away the top layer of grass and twigs to uncover her young and the first hatchlings head for the daylight their mother's mighty jaws become a gentle cradle some of the babies hitch a free ride to the water meanwhile the rest of the brood hear the squeaking and begin to emerge the hatchlings are less than six inches long but perfect miniatures of their mother [Music] they're quite capable of making their own way at this age their legs are strong enough to easily lift their bodies high off the ground [Music] once in the water there's safety in numbers so the babies gather together and for the first few weeks their mother stays close by but the hatchlings have many enemies fish birds not to mention other crocodiles they'll be lucky if even one out of this 50 survives right now we're still wondering if our problem croc is going to show his face Terry and I have seen absolutely no sign of it but if anyone's going to spot him berry will this is big crock headquarter but he still doesn't seem to be at home then suddenly the moment of truth there he is this is looking good we've seen a large male crocodile but as we approach him he submerges and seems to go up the other end although we can't say for sure it looks like he may remember his night in the trap that could be good news for the fishermen who come here and good news for our croc and all those liking as human populations expand in Australia we've got to learn to allow these super predators their space this new approach could help us leave them in the wild where they belong that way they'll always be Crocs down under [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Real Wild

Views: 2,863,511

Rating: 4.8701911 out of 5

Keywords: nature documentary, full documentary, documentary movie, baby animals, animals attack, english, hd, discovery channel, national geographic, bbc, natgeo wild, Nature documentaries - topic, Animals - topic, steve irwin, crocodile hunter, crocodiles, biggest reptile, crocodiles attack, steve irwin fights crocodile, reptiles, crocodile river, crocodile trap, how to catch a crocodile, crocs, wild crocodiles, crocodile dundee, real crocodile dundee

Id: j_BckhLECVY

Length: 51min 52sec (3112 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 01 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/YTTMirrorBot]

Blocked in Australia Mirror: Crocs Down Under -Steve Irwin Documentary (1998) ^{52min - 311106 views}

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[u/hotaru251]

This man taught me more about animals and stuff than years of my parents, teachers, and a dozen other animal related tv shows.

[u/NonSentientHuman]

This guy was the Aussie Mr. Rogers of animals, miss him so much.

[u/zzhudson]

God rest his crazy ass soul

[u/hackinandcoffin]

At 14:36 when Irwin says the large croc "is a gentle lover" about made me spit my coffee!!

Edit: time

[u/Kipperonl]

We didn’t deserve steve

[u/ChewMaNutz]

After watching this I noticed a couple things that i missed as a child.

1. Camera person really liked to show off Steve's bodacious ass.
2. I'm actually surprised impressed by how long Steve lasted in the wild life with all the close calls he had on a daily basis.

[u/TigaSharkJB91]

I'll never respect hiking boots and khaki short shorts quite the same way. RIP ya big beaut

[u/taloncard815]

He was a Generations version of Jacques Cousteau many have tried to emulate or replace him and no one has even come close. He's one of the few people that you can say his loss was a lost the entire world. I truly hope that someone who's as inspirational Rises to fill that void. We truly need someone to introduce people to the wild world in ways that everyone can relate to.