Meanwhile in Australia. pic.twitter.com/RBAFFe09Vm

— John. (@JohnFloreani) September 16, 2020

HT: Ann Althouse via Bird Dog via Karen L. Myers.

via GIPHY

Fox News reports that a reporter for a prestigious newspaper was eaten by a crocodile.

A Financial Times journalist was killed by a crocodile while washing his hands at a lagoon in Sri Lanka during a holiday with pals.

Paul McClean, 25, an Oxford University graduate, is understood to have wandered away from his group of friends to find a toilet when he was attacked.

The British victim is believed to have been dragged under water at a lagoon called Crocodile Rock near a popular surf spot after being ambushed by the reptile.

McClean graduated from Oxford with a First class honors degree in French in 2015 before joining the Financial Times later that year.

He had covered Brexit and the European Union for the newspaper and had recently returned to London after living in Brussels for a couple of months.

The lagoon, known to be crawling with crocodiles, is yards away from popular surf spot Elephant Rock near Arugam Bay on the southeast coast.

Sri Lankan police and the army are said to be searching the shore surrounding the area.

Locals claimed the victim had been staying at the East Beach Surf Resort – located just minutes away from the surfing area he went missing from.

Fawas Lafeer, owner of Safa Surf School, located up the coast from where the incident happened, said: “A local fisherman witnessed a man being dragged into a river, set back from the beach, by a crocodile. The fisherman was on the opposite side of the river and downstream of the incident location.”

RTWT

NY Post:

She just snapped.

A French tourist was bitten by a crocodile after posing next to the enormous reptile in a misguided attempt to take a selfie, according to reports.

The 41-year-old woman was exploring Thailand’s Khao Yai National Park with her husband when the duo came across the giant female reptile, reported The Mirror.

The couple squatted down next to the crocodile, which then reportedly sank its teeth into the woman’s thigh as the picture was taken.

Snaps from the scene show the woman being whisked away by rescuers, as the croc ambles away through the brush.

The park reportedly posts many signs telling visitors to stay on paths and not detour through the thicket.

The unnamed woman, whose leg appears bandaged, was transported to an area hospital, where she was treated for her injuries.

Her condition remains unknown.

The crocodile remains at large.

Hat tip to Jim Harberson.

Russian title says: “Hazardous Work Operator” and Discovery.

Hat tip to Ratak Monodosico.

A 10 foot water python (Liasis fuscus) was filmed, and made international news, on Sunday at Lake Moondara in Queensland, Australia defeating and then devouring a small three foot crocodile.

Brisbane Times

BBC

io9

Hat tip to Karen L. Myers.

Mugger crocodile (Crocodylus palustris) equipped with twigs.

Charleston Post and Courier reports on a recent University of Tennessee study which finds saurians in both America and India luring birds to their doom.

American alligators, and their cousin Indian marsh crocodiles, apparently have figured out that if they balance twigs on their snouts, wading birds will try to snatch them for nests. For the quick-snapping gator, that’s free lunch. …

A recently released study – published in Ethology, Ecology and Evolution – is the first to document “lure-baiting” by the species, and one of the few lure-baiting behaviors documented among animals overall.

Nah, you say – just dumb luck? Well, the study documented that alligators in Louisiana use the twig trick only during a relatively brief bird nesting season.

They have thought this thing through.

“For people working with alligators it comes as little surprise because we already know how smart they can be. But for the general public it is apparently a bit unexpected,” said Vladimir Dinets, a University of Tennessee psychology researcher, who is the study’s lead author.

“They are capable of very unique things when it comes to feeding,” said wildlife biologist Phil Wilkinson of Georgetown, who has spent more than 30 years studying the American alligator.

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Also in the Daily Mail.

Worse than your dust bunnies.

Guy Whittall, age 40, slept peacefully all night, only inches away from the 330 lb. reptile, and never even noticed his presence. Whittall learned that he had had a roommate when he heard the housemaid’s screams while eating his breakfast in the kitchen.

Daily Mail:

Doesn’t want to leave.

The really disconcerting thing about the whole episode is the fact that I was sitting on the edge of the bed that morning, bare foot and just centimetres away from the croc.”