Steve Irwin surveillance-crocodiles travel across oceans
Before his death, legendary Aussie reptile-botherer Steve Irwin helped to plant tracking bugs on a large number of saltwater crocodiles. Boffins analysing data from the bugs now report that the crocs, despite being poor swimmers who mainly live in shallow estuarine waters, are capable of making long ocean voyages. A croc bugged …
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Not just full grown, full grown to max size
Some of the crocs in the study were adult males above 5m in size. You have to be as mad as Steve Irwin to tag something this size. And even more importantly you have to live in a country that does not have the UK Health and Safety act.
not just nutty
It was the years of watching the buggers that led to him developing ways of catching crocs without the usual method of shooting first.
Gaffa tape and rubber bands - none of your 'sedate it first' rubbish.
And man followed?
I guess they've been doing this for millions of years. Anthropologists have often wondered how man travelled between the various lands - perhaps they just saw the crocs heading over the horizon and thought they'd take a look too! The animals seem to have pretty good navigation skills to learn too!
Re: And man followed?
"Anthropologists have often wondered how man travelled between the various lands"
... but remain resolutely silent on how woman got there.
Well
She was thrown over the back of the horse of course.... or maybe the croc. Anyway that was back in the day when throwing women over the backs of things was manly and not domestic abuse.
Stingray poison?
The great Steve/Croc Hunter actually died when a stingray barb went into his chest and put a hole into his heart.
He didnt die because of toxin
He died because the barb of the stingray punctured his heart and he (irwin) removed it. As any sensible person knows, removing the object thats caused the puncture is sometimes the worst thing you can do! He died moments later.
Shame, i liked him, mad ozzie that he was..
Beer cos i raise my glass to his memory.
You're right, it was a shame...
I heard, watched and read quite a lot about him before and after his death, he really pricked my interest. However, I'm not sure what practical alternative he had available to him when he'd just been stabbed through the heart by a living, wild animal in the ocean. I can't imagine the stingray would have been too happy to stay put for much longer and so would have undoubtedly pulled its tail clear and would've swum off.
The Reg beats the Beeb - for once
At least The Reg got this story approximately right - unlike the Beeb at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10260382.stm
The Beeb seems to think that Crocs live somewhere near Chile / Tierra-del-Fuego, and that Sri-Lanka and Thailand are in the same region rather than the Indian Ocean and South China Sea
Quote
"They are poor swimmers and mainly live in salt water - but their "home" spans over 10,000sq km of the south-east Pacific, from Sri Lanka to Fiji and from Thailand to northern Australia. "
NB Expect the Beeb article to be amended soonish.
Thailand had two coasts the last time I was there
And yes, one faces on the Indian ocean.
So unless someone's been moving the oceans, the coast line on the western side of Thailand, just north of Malaysia and east of Myanmar, does indeed front on to the same ocean that Sri-Lanka does.
Thailands coastlines are nowhere near Tierra-del-Fuego
The point of my post was that crocs live in the Western mid pacific, South China Sea, and Indian Ocean - give or take the anonymous seas to the North of Australia.
Thailand and Sri-Lanka are Indian Ocean and/or South China Sea. Western Pacific includes Fiji and a bit of New Guinea / Melanesia.
None of which relates to 'South-East Pacific", which by my reckoning is Chile and Tierra-del-Fuego
I believe
IMHO, they were using the points as approximate latitude and longitude substitutes. As such Sri Lanka and Fiji point out relative longitude and Thailand and Northern Australia indicate latitude. I suppose the reasoning is that perhaps people can more easily visualize the range on a map with geographic names than they can with sets of coordinates.
I believe crocodiles grow.
Having said that, I didn't watch Steve Irwin's shows much, is the thing you do with the elastic band just alligators?
Hypocrites
If Google had done this tagging, you lot would all be up in arms over the invasion of privacy. Instead, Steve Irwin does it, and becomes some sort of national hero.
Pah.
[Please, note, this is a attempt at humour, and should be regarded as such]
Never again will we hear the imortal words...
"Little bugger bit me, jumped up, sunk his teeth right in!" (say it with a thick aussie accent with emphasis on 'right in' for best effect).
I miss the mental aussie poking poisonous reptiles with sticks for fun...
Cheers Mr Irwin! I raise a glass to you and Mr John Peel at least one a year. You are both missed.
Re: Never again will we hear the imortal words...
I remember when Peel used to poke Pulp with a stick until they were enraged. The two are similar in so, so many ways.
Ahhh but the wrath of Cocker
Being chased by a nerdy skinny guy with specs on isn't really as scary as a 5m croc though now is it?
One croc said to another croc...
... wow, mate, you get wi-fi on that thing...?
Radio controlled
Steve Irwin's world domination via radio controlled super-crocs thwarted by Stingray (duh nuh nuuh nuh, nuuh nuh - anything could happen in the next half-hour).
facts...
"Famous crocmeister Irwin, who died after being poisoned by a stingray in 2006"
1. Stingrays are not venemous
2. Steve Irwin was impailed on it's 'spike' which pierced his heart killing him almost instantly
RE: facts...
Correct. Stingrays are not venomous, in the same way that crocodiles are not reptiles, and Steve Irwin is not dead.
Indeed...
"Stingrays are not venemous"
Er, yes they are.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray
@fLaMePrOoF
Facts.
1: Stingrays are venemous.
Sources.
1: Millions of pages via GOOGLE. e.g.
http://library.thinkquest.org/C007974/2_1sti.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray
http://www.mote.org/index.php?src=gendocs&link=Stingrays&category=Shark%20Research&submenu=INFO
Am I the only one...
who read the "perfectly safe" line and laughed out loud?
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