Crocodile Community…

Sunday afternoons are great days on the Discovery Channel.
After we finished cleaning the house, Corey and I sat down to a few
nightmare-inducing episodes about crocodile attacks in Australia.

I’ll spare you the gory details… but let’s just say that the
attacks have increased enough that it’s now worthy of a whole Discovery series.
One man began researching the saltwater crocs that are responsible for the
attacks. Just after the Second World War, it was a fashionable hobby to
hunt these saltwater crocs. The sport became so popular that the crocs became
endangered. However, there are acres and acres of swampland in Australia that
are unreachable. The hypothesis was that these crocs moved into those swamps
and recovered. Our host, with all the latest technology, ventured into these
areas to see what happened. As he studied the crocs he found that not only had
the population recovered, but this swampland was filled beyond capacity with
these crocs. The problem is in crocodile community, only one boss male is allowed
at a time. So as new males are being born on the river, they are forced out to
find their own tribe. But since the rivers are overfilled, there is no room
left for these outcasts. Every stop downriver produces another fight… another
rejection.

 

So it’s not the giant dinosaur-esque crocs to be worried
about… it’s the young teenage ones with no family and no community. They are
the ones who settle in the city and see every other creature as either a threat
or food.

 

I think I’ve met a few teenage crocs around the world… I
think I’ve driven past them in downtown Atlanta. I even heard the stories of a
few who come to our training camps… The stories of father’s who shoved them
away and the death and destruction that happened from that point forward…

 

God save the family… and make my home a safe place along the
river…