Danish adventurer provokes crocodile, lives to tell the tale
Niels Jensen, a hunting guide and wildlife management
graduate, is being investigated after he was seen goading a saltwater
crocodile.
Playing games with a live, five-metre long crocodile is not the best idea, especially if you are not qualified to deal with such animals. Even if you are a hunting guide, like 22-year-old Niels Jensen, it’s best not to test the limits of a crocodile. But Niels fancies himself a “hunter and adventurer”, so of course, he was glad to take on the challenge.
In a disturbing video that was apparently filmed by Niels’s friend, the intrepid adventurer can be seen brazenly taunting a saltwater crocodile in northern Australia with a dead wallaby. Once the crocodile gets close enough to swallow the small animal in one gulp, Niels takes a moment before deciding the best thing to do is to sit on the crocodile’s back.
His friend said, “get off there before you get bitten”, but Niels still had time to sit on the animal’s back and pose for a photo. Niels has since admitted that straddling the crocodile was not the cleverest thing he could have done: “I don’t think it was dangerous, I know it was. Even with a crocodile like this that are used to humans it is a scary feeling sitting on something that could kill you in a fraction of a second. [sic]”.
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The Department of Tourism and Culture is investigating the incident focusing not only on Niels’s reckless behaviour but also on his use of a wallaby – a protected endangered species in the region – to taunt the crocodile.