Was this Nile croc eaten by a great white?

Adam Khor

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/01/13/giant-crocodile--shark-head-south-african-beach_n_2467794.html

Some are blaming poachers, some say it was a hippo, and others that it was a great white shark. I seriously doubt it was poachers, tho, as they would probably have taken the head...

I once found a severed shark's head in a beach once and it was a lot like this. Guess the shark didn´t need to decapitate the crocodile; it could as well have been dead for a while and fed on by several sharks until different parts of the body were separated from each other, kind of like the infamous giant eyeball in Florida...

What do u guys think?

magicherbs

would have to see forensic reports about it. surely they can make some guesses based on the would. it looks very clean for an animal bite, as if a killer whale or white shark bit straight through and spat it out? why poacher would discard head? other than keep it as a trophy no use for it.

Galvasean

Looks like too clean a cut for a bite IMO. I'd say poaching is the answer as I don't think the head is of much use for leather or meat.

Adam Khor

Galvasean wrote: »

Looks like too clean a cut for a bite IMO. I'd say poaching is the answer as I don't think the head is of much use for leather or meat.

Sure, but oftentimes poachers will keep the skull of the croc, especially if it's big.

Who knows- it seems to me like some people are thinking the head was removed in one single bite, which just doesn´t seem likely. I'm thinking that if the crocodile was indeed eaten by sharks, it was for a while before the head and maybe other body parts were detached, like the giant swordfish eye from last year's news.

Kess73

An estimated 3.5m length is a giant Nile croc?


Would be agreeing with those that suspect poachers. A head that size would be of no great value to a poacher to sell on as a trophy as it looks to be quite average in size.

For it to have been a GW, the shark would have to have been massive in size in order to sever a head so cleanly, and such a sized shark would probably be far larger than anything on record to be honest.


Another very plausible way imho for the croc to lose his head would be if it came into contact with the propellor of a ship. Have seen very large dolphin and shark get sliced neatly by ships.

Mickeroo

Look, I'm just going to say what I know we're all thinking.

It was Megaladon.

Galvasean

Oddly enough, in the movie Frankenfish they find an alligator's head that was severed similarly...

dodderangler

Kess
I'm sure there is plenty of sharks out there that are far bigger than current record ( wouldn't want to meet them) but sure there is
Like the croc caught last year lolong he is huge but hundreds of locals are claiming that he is not the croc that was seen killing buffalo and other livestock and I'd well believe that aswell as there is another hunt going on for this other croc
I will be in Philippines in April and will see if I can contact anyone about these rumours if a much bigger croc ( but definately not go on the hunt for it lol)

Kess73

dodderangler wrote: »

Kess
I'm sure there is plenty of sharks out there that are far bigger than current record ( wouldn't want to meet them) but sure there is
Like the croc caught last year lolong he is huge but hundreds of locals are claiming that he is not the croc that was seen killing buffalo and other livestock and I'd well believe that aswell as there is another hunt going on for this other croc
I will be in Philippines in April and will see if I can contact anyone about these rumours if a much bigger croc ( but definately not go on the hunt for it lol)

We already know that there are bigger and longer crocs than Lolong because they are already on record. There is a 23 footer in India in the Bhitarkanika National Park, and there is an estimated 100+ other crocs in the same crocodile sancturay which are estimated to be over the 20 foot mark.


As for there being bigger sharks than we know of out there. That is of course possible, but for a shark to be big enough to cleanly sever the head off of a 3.5m Nile croc it would have to be far bigger than anything on record, and by far bigger we would be talking the lower end of the meglodon estimates.


The croc's head is cut off in a clean manner, with no real signs of multiple bites or jagged tears. So if the head was removed in a single powerful bite, then it would require a shark in or around the 30 foot mark, maybe even bigger, otherwise the jaws of the shark would not be scaled up enough to bite straight through and fully across the croc.


The bite radius of a 18 to 20 foot Great white would suggest a jaw too small to sever the croc in such a clean manner. For something like a killer whale to have done the job it would require an Orca in the 30 foot bracket, based on published bite radius stats for Orca that size.


Enjoy your trip to the Philippines though. You should get plenty of opportunities to look at Salties up close. Can say from experience in Oz that they are an amazing animal to watch up close, and whilst they don't exhude the same sense of majesty a large great white does when you are in the water with it, they do for me give off a sense of patient menace and power that the shark does not quite match.

recedite

The croc's head was pulled off by a giant octopus, there are sucker marks clearly visible on the top of it.

dodderangler

recedite wrote: »

The croc's head was pulled off by a giant octopus, there are sucker marks clearly visible on the top of it.

That a joke?

recedite

Hey, its an equally plausible theory...