Crocs can surf!

Hmmm. So crocodiles go surfing!

Surfing Crocodile Vector Illustration photo

Research has come out documenting how saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) travel across their huge habitat (ranging from Sri Lanka to Fiji) - they catch a wave and surf it! What an idea, and how talented they must be at it!

Here's an excerpt from the BBC report this blog links to:

During the research, a team led by Dr Hamish Campbell, from the University of Queensland, captured 20 crocodiles living in the North Kennedy tidal river in Queensland, northern Australia, and tagged them with satellite transmitters.

They found that during the period of study, eight of them ventured out into the open ocean. One travelled from the river mouth all the way to the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula, in Queensland's far north. That amounts to a total of 590km covered over 25 days.

and more:

It took another adventurer - a 4.84m-long male - just 20 days to go more than 411km from from the east coast of Australia's Cape York Peninsula through the Torres Strait (which divides Australia from New Guinea) to the Wenlock River on the west coast of Cape York.

When the crocodile arrived in the Torres Strait, strong currents were flowing in the opposite direction to where it was headed.

So the animal waited in a sheltered bay for four days and continued its trip when the currents changed direction.

Wow! these chaps can navigate too!

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