Recently, there was a very terrible news in the United States:
A 69-year-old woman was killed by a 3-meter-long crocodile while walking her dog.
And the crocodile also "protects food", guarding the already mutilated corpse from rescue ...
It happened on Hilton Head Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, which has long been known as one of the best places to live in South Carolina with its beautiful environment, pleasant climate and a whole natural lagoon.
The 69-year-old victim, who did not disclose his identity, lived not far from the lake.
Every morning, she goes out around 7 a.m. to walk her dog at the golf course near the lakeside.
But on July 4th, she took her dog out for a walk as usual, and the dog returned home alone, but she disappeared...
This is obviously not quite right, and the worried family members hurriedly went out to look for it, but only waited for a bad news...
At 9:30 a.m., a family member saw her by the lake – she was lying there unconscious, mutilated, and there appeared to be a crocodile next to her!
Frightened, the family quickly contacted the local emergency services.
But when rescuers arrived and tried to get closer, the crocodile rushed out of the lake, not allowing people to approach its "trophies."
(Schematic)
The crocodile was 3 meters long, and under its deterrence, rescuers were unable to retrieve the body immediately.
Rescuers wasted their efforts to remove the crocodile before successfully "recapture" the body and send it to the Beaufort County Coroner's Office for an autopsy.
Subsequently, the male crocodile was euthanized...
Although the crocodile involved has been dealt with, people are still terrified:
In less than a year, there have been two incidents of crocodiles biting people to death in this small county...
The last time a crocodile killed a person was on August 15 last year.
At 11:15 p.m. that day, the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office received a call from the police: "I was passing by the pond and saw a huge crocodile, guarding the body of a man!" ”
The victim was 88-year-old grandmother, Nancy A. Becker.
At the time, she was gardening in the community when she accidentally slipped into a pond.
Before she could react, a crocodile lurking in the water rushed over and bit her to death...
After her death, the crocodile stayed by her body, not allowing anyone to approach. (The crocodile was eventually euthanized)
At a press conference at the time, people involved called the crocodile attack "a rare but not surprising thing."
Because in the United States, crocodile attacks seem to be becoming more and more frequent...
At the end of June this year, a couple living in Louisiana were woken up by a dog in the middle of the night.
They thought it was a thief in the room and decided to get up and go to the living room to take a look, but they turned on the light and saw a 1.5-meter-long crocodile on the carpet.
The crocodile took advantage of the darkness to enter through their "dog door".
Fortunately, the couple's dog warned in time, otherwise I don't know how much of a problem would have occurred.
When the staff came to arrest it, this crocodile resisted violently and was also very scary...
A few days earlier, on June 20, Gabriel Klimis, a 13-year-old boy in Florida, was attacked by crocodiles while playing with friends at the water's edge.
He was crossing the river when he suddenly felt something pulling him, and then something was biting him sharply on the right buttock.
He suddenly felt bad, looked back, and found that it was a 2.4-meter-long crocodile that attacked him...
"I stepped on the sand with one foot, and then the crocodile grabbed my right leg and dragged me down desperately."
Fortunately, when life and death were at stake, Gabriel suddenly burst into a burst of power and grabbed a stick on the shore to prevent himself from being completely pulled into the water.
Under his desperate struggle, the crocodile let go of his mouth.
He crawled out of the water as fast as he could, called the police...
So, he "survived the crocodile".
It was also mentioned that in February this year, there was actually an incident of being attacked by a crocodile while walking a dog.
At the time, Gloria Serge, 85, of Florida, was walking her dog by the water.
A crocodile more than 3 meters lurked and approached her from the water and rushed onto land with lightning speed.
The dog was frightened and ran forward, and Gloria instinctively wanted to protect her dog, but was frightened by the crocodile and fell to the ground.
Some witnesses saw all this and immediately called the police, but it was too late.
After Gloria falls, the crocodile gets a chance and drags her underwater.
And she never floated again...
In recent years, crocodile attacks across the United States have become more frequent and deadly.
In South Carolina, for example, there have been 24 crocodile attacks since 2000, six of which resulted in deaths.
And these 6 deaths all occurred after 2016...
This phenomenon may be the result of a combination of factors.
On the one hand, with the growth of the population and the expansion of the city, human activities are increasingly encroaching on the crocodile's habitat. This increases the chances of humans coming into contact with crocodiles and also increases the likelihood of an attack.
Ecosystems are destroyed and natural food sources are reduced, forcing crocodiles to move closer to areas of human activity to find alternative food sources, possibly even humans themselves.
On the other hand, people often lack understanding of crocodile behavior and habitat, and even swim, fish, walk dogs, play in the water near crocodile habitat...
These unconscious dangerous behaviors also make them prey for crocodiles.
It's easy to underestimate how ferocity crocodiles are.
Most people's perception of crocodiles comes from crocodiles lazily parked in the water in zoos.
Therefore, many people have the impression that crocodiles are just fierce in the water, and they are not so scary on land.
But in fact, the crocodile is no slower on land than humans - it can reach 48km/h in a short time, which is faster than Usain Bolt.
Crocodiles are territorial, ambush-type predators that wait quietly in shallow water near the water's edge if humans approach their habitat before suddenly attacking.
This method of attack makes people almost defenseless until danger comes.
When crocodiles rush out of the water, they will nimbly and quickly bite their prey, drag it into the water, and may even weaken the defenses of the prey by rapidly rotating their bodies, causing serious damage to it until they die...
The U.S. Department of Natural Resources has also given safety tips:
1. Do not approach crocodiles and keep a distance of at least 9 meters. If a crocodile approaches the shore, it must be moved away immediately.
2. Crocodiles are most active at dusk and dawn, avoid lounging near the water during these times, and remember to be vigilant during the day.
3. Crocodiles cannot be fed to prevent crocodiles from associating humans with food.
4. Avoid any bodies of water that may be crocodile nests, and stay away if you see branches, grass, and disturbed soil.
After the death of this attack, netizens sighed.
"Poor lady... What a horrible experience it was for her and her family. ”
Someone lamented the lady:
"For God's sake, stop walking your dog near the pond. The woman killed in February was in a nearby town. If you're not smart, crocodiles will catch you. ”
"Why do people walk their dogs near lakes when they know there are crocodiles?"
There are also safety tips:
"Please be vigilant near all waters in South Carolina. Ponds and lakes usually have crocodiles and snakes.
There are crocodiles, sharks, snakes and dolphins in the river. There are sharks, dolphins, rays and more in the ocean. Be especially careful at dawn and dusk, as this is usually their foraging time. ”
However, it is worth mentioning that while crocodile attacks are increasing in recent years, overall, this is still a rare problem that can be avoided.
If you really have friends who live near water bodies with crocodiles, be sure to keep your distance, stay vigilant, and don't swim in the water.
I hope that such a tragedy will not happen again ...