Steve Irwin's son had a close encounter with a giant crocodile over the weekend.
Robert Irwin narrowly escaped a 12-foot leucistic (or, predominantly white-skinned) saltwater crocodile which charged him while he was attempting to feed it at the Australia Zoo, according to People. The 18-year-old shared video of the incident, which he described as "one of the most intense croc feeds I've done," on Instagram.
In the clip, Irwin explains that he and his team are attempting to prepare the crocodile, Casper, to be "the new star of the midday croc show," at the Australia Zoo's crocodile attraction. There are ways to test to see whether the crocodile is ready for its new role or not and one of those entails monitoring how he reacts to being fed and seeing whether his predatory instincts will kick in and he will charge.
"Now we want to see a nice, big reaction from him," Irwin says in the video, which shows him in the enclosure, using a carcass to coax Casper out of a water pool. "That's how we know he's happy."
In the video, Casper is seen heaving himself out of the water and lunging at Irwin while completely ignoring the bits of meat he has thrown at him. It is at this point that Irwin runs away, screaming "bail, bail!"
Captioning the video, Irwin said that he and his team prioritized natural behavior with their crocodiles.
"By getting in their enclosures with them, and letting them put on those huge strikes from the water's edge, they get to use all of their predatory instincts and they just love it!" he wrote. "Plus we can educate everyone about their conservation. But safety for us is also crucial and you definitely have to know when to call it. And with such a powerful and quick croc like Casper we had no choice but to bail!"
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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