Here in Australia we have a rather famous old Croc (crocodile) he is called Elvis, and he is mean, he is known as Australia’s crankiest croc. Elvis is a saltwater croc about 5meters or 16.4 feet long, so he is also rather large. Elvis lives in a Reptile Park at Somersby which is north of Sydney, and is 50 years old.
You get it! No, you. Snappy Australian Reptile Park resident Elvis lurks next to the sunken Victa after he snatched the lawnmower from staff, snapping two of his teeth off in the process. Picture: Gary Graham (from The Telegraph picture gallery)
Staff went to mow inside Elvis’s enclosure, which is done regularly, but on this day it seems Elvis was not a happy croc, (normal for him actually) and he took a lunge at the staff, so they put the lawnmowers in-between them and Elvis. So of course Elvis grabbed one of the mowers, in the process he lost 2 of his teeth, and then he stood guard over the mower for more than an hour.
Tim Faulkner holds up Elvis’ teeth lost in the attack. Picture: Gary Graham
(from The Telegraph picture gallery)
See more great photos of Elvis’s catch in The Telegraph picture gallery.
Magsx2's Blog 
Hyssterical! Did he mow the lawn, too?
Hi Elyse,
I think they are still trying to teach him that trick. 🙂
LOL. Was thinking along similar lines. Maybe he was just trying to help out, do his fair share!
Hi bingbing,
You may be right, after all there is fake grass in his pool. 😀
Elvis – “I don’t get it…this tastes terrible. But it smells just like my swamp…”
Hi El Guapo,
I know Elvis would of been a bit disappointed he only got the mower, but then he did guard it so no one could take it from him. 😀
I found this very funny but later found out that he’s done this before and that they deliberately took two mowers in there that day. That and the fact that they just happened to have a camera there and running to get the whole thing on tape…Hmm, call me cynical but I’m thinking they might have done this to up their visitor numbers…which this sure did.. Go Elvis!
Hi tempo,
They usually use 2 mowers over the holiday period in all of the enclosers, I think because of the extra visitors they like to get the maintenance done a bit quicker. The camera is another story, I don’t know if a visitor was videoing Elvis at the time, or if there is a permanent camera over the encloser, I doubt if it was set up, he is a very dangerous croc, he is always trying to attack the workers.
I did a bit of a search and found this article in the Yahoo News:-
Five-meter long Elvis was already not exactly a hunk of burning love, having eaten two girlfriends at another crocodile park where he lived.
http://news.yahoo.com/now-never-workers-elvis-croc-strikes-again-183839997.html
There’s not enough money on this planet that would entice me to mow inside a crocodile enclosure. Jumpin’ Jehosafat — just look at the size of those teeth!
Hi Laurie,
I totally agree, I would never go into an encloser like this for any amount of money.
The teeth are unreal aren’t they. 🙂
Amazing. I’m blown away by this frightfully magnificent critter. God bless the zoo-keepers. I couldn’t do their job. I’d be too afraid. 😉
Hi EC;
You would definitely have to be a special kind of person I think, I know I am not one of those people. 😀
What a guy … at that age! 🙂 A dentist’s dream? …or nightmare LOL
Hi Rebekah,
Oh definitely a nightmare. 🙂
This story also made the “Townsville Bulletin”, even though Elvis wasn’t one of ours.
Hi Mal,
That is unreal, he is very well known. I can remember when they first caught him, I had a bit of a look for the original story, and the different Wildlife Parks he has been in but no luck, I only found the bit in the Yahoo News (link above in comments) about him attacking the boats, he really is a cranky old guy. 😀
The “Toronto Sun” reports, “He was captured near Darwin, in Australia’s north, for attacking fishing boats.” at http://www.torontosun.com/2012/01/03/elvis-the-croc-strikes-again . Elvis seems to be world famous!
Wow he is really a star. 😆
I had to laugh at one of the comments in the link, someone said it was a doctored photo, of the croc with the lawnmower, obviously they haven’t seen the
video. 🙂
This made the news here in the US … I think I saw it on CNN.
Hi aFrankAngle,
Wow, good old Elvis is a world celebrity, that is incredible. 🙂
Maybe he had a rabbit stuck in his teeth and needed to floss
Hi John,
With those teeth you may be right, it would take a lawnmower to floss them. 😀
Crikey! I don’t blame Elvis one bit. Nothing drives me more batty than the usual weekend round of lawn mowing up and down the street in the summer time. I’d say Elvis and I share a bit of misophonia. Cranky or not, that croc would be better off in the wild someplace than in that cramped pen.
Hi Rob,
Oh yes sometimes on the weekend it does get that way. 🙂
The only reason Elvis was removed from the wild was because he was causing so much trouble, the last thing anyone wanted to happen was to see somebody getting hurt or worse, and sooner or later someone would of killed him. This way he is safe, and so are the people that lived near where he was lurking.
Thank you very much for visiting and taking the time to comment.
Rob, I don’t know you, but I must be married to you. Or you are my husband’s twin. I did not know that there was a name for it. misophonia. Misophonia makes me nuts too. Because MY HUSBAND has it and goes nuts with the normal noises that I just tune out. He is perpetually cranky. I hope you are not.
Thanks Mags for the venue that helped me name this malady!
For anyone that doesn’t know the meaning of Misohponia :-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misophonia 🙂
I saved that website — this problem of his has driven me mad for 25 years. At least now it has a name. That way I can find out if treatment is available! Surgery perhaps? A rocket to the moon?
I do believe a rocket to the moon is the answer. 😆
Elyse…you can’t be married to Rob because I think I am.. My husband hates noise and uses it as an excuse NOT to mow the lawn. Rob…do you shirk your lawn mowing duties?
I’m sure the HR department had a bit of a discusssion: “Hey, New Kid. We understand it’s your first day on the job and all, but we don’t feed the crocs rubber chicken or mowers as pranks. Since you let him have it, you’ll have to get it back from him.”
Hi Barb,
You could just imagine the HR department saying that. 😆
Well…er…HR once had to talk to me about teaching the fowl new words (like misophonia, of course.) so I know the standard discipline speech.
Good one. 😆
Nope, Rob’s my husband. Yep, I am sure. And no, he isn’t perpetually cranky though he and the youngest daughter are forever bothered by noise that I must be too deaf to hear.
And when he mows the lawn, he wears earplugs.
Hi Ann,
It seems Rob has made an impression on some of the Ladies. 😀
Thank You for visiting and taking the time to comment.
Ah, Mags, you know me and animals. I’d be miserable, too, if I was cooped up in some containment area. The only good thing about it is that he’s not eating people!
Hi souldipper,
Not eating people is what it is all about I’m sure. 🙂
Aussie company’s do make a bit of money out of crocs in the wild, you will find that the powers that be only remove them if they are a real danger.
I did a post of our crocs, in the post you can see the crocs jumping out of the water and the visitors feeding them in the wild.
Australian Crocodiles (Video Included)
Just thinking … next door, they don’t have a lawnmower; the daughters of the house keep rabbits, and they keep the grass short. So, maybe Elvis thought it was a new kind of rabbit?
Hi travelrat,
Poor old Elvis would of been very disappointed that the mower didn’t taste anything like a rabbit. 😀
Mags great post. Hats off to these zoo keeper. But does Elvis now live without those two front teeth. At fifty years of age it must be painful for him also.
Hi Arindam,
Not at all, they loose their teeth all the time in the wild, you would be amazed at some of the things they try to drag into the water.
I have found this for you.
Crocodiles have 60 teeth in their mouth at any one time and can grow up to 2-3,000 teeth during their lifetime.
Animal teeth.
Really! I am going to check this link now. Thanks a lot. 🙂
What a meanie 😉 I would never get this close to a crocodile.. lol
Hi Wolke205,
I’m with you on that one. 😀
All I can say is, YIKES! 🙂
Hi Barbara,
Yes you sort of feel glad it wasn’t you trying to mow the lawn. 😀
I saw this on television. Elvis has my sympathy. I DETEST being woken by noisy lawnmowers on Sunday mornings! I remember writing a short, irate diatribe about it in French a few years ago:
Pourquoi l’homme a-t-il ce besoin
D’envahir le dimanche matin
Avec sa tondeuse a gazon?
(I apologize for the absence of accent on the “a”. I have an English language keyboard and don’t know how to put on the accents with it.)
Those teeth are certainly gi-enormous! I hope he didn’t feel too much pain. Crocs are not my favourite animals but I don’t like the idea of them suffering.
Hi Lady Marilyn,
Yes he certainly wasn’t happy, and he let it be known.
A good subject to write about, a lot of people get annoyed by the lawnmower on Sundays, especially if it is a bit early in the morning. 🙂
The teeth alone makes you want to run for it. 😆
Go Elvis. Show them what’s what. LOL.
Hi Selma,
Yes a true Aussie, he didn’t want the mower going and now it’s not. 😆