Salt Water Crocodile Deadly 60 Bites

On Deadly 60 I've had loads of incredible animal encounters.

SHARK! Here's just one of my many favourites.

This is...

We're in Australia's Northern Territories.

About here.

There's so many possible animals here

for the Deadly 60, I don't know where to start!

This freshwater pool is one of the few places around here

where I won't run into our first contender for the Deadly 60.

And it's a good job too, because have a look at this!

The saltwater crocodile.

The locals call them "salties".

Now, I'm going to hold my hand up here

and say that these things genuinely scare me.

GROWLS

They're the world's largest crocodilian,

growing to more than six metres and weighing over a ton.

They live in rivers, lakes, and even the sea.

It's one of the few animals in the world that can, on occasion,

hunt, kill and eat a human being.

And if they attack people, they rarely leave survivors.

To get close to one, I've come to visit croc guru Dr Adam Britton.

He loves them so much that he's got one in his back garden.

He's been studying them for years and has a specially constructed pool

so you can study and film their behaviour underwater

safely, inside a cage.

And night-time is the time to do it.

Saltwater crocodiles do the majority of their hunting at night

so it should be the absolute worst time

to be going anywhere near them.

Unless, of course, you want to see them feeding.

In which case, it's the perfect time.

'I have to say, I'd rather get in the water with a great white shark

'than a saltwater crocodile,

'so I'm very glad that this wire

'is going to be between me and the croc.'

Oh! That was... That was unbelievable!

That was one of the most awe-inspiring,

terrifying things I've ever seen.

Just out of nowhere,

kind of green murky water,

and then just BAM!

It hit the chicken just like a dinosaur coming out of the dark.

It was like something out of Jaws.

Oof.

Did you all hear me scream underwater? From up here?

I was just going "Aaaah!"

Just the size and the power

and the strength and the speed that that animal moved,

for a creature that size...

That is quite something.

I think we'd better go and try and find one in the wild, boys. Ha!

So, can wild salties really be deadly?

This isn't a good sign.

Crocodiles today, is it?

In the Northern Territories the rivers are full of big crocodiles.

The people have learned how to deal with it so it's rarely a problem.

Every once in a while, though,

a crocodile starts to associate people with food

and then that is a problem and it needs to be moved.

I'm here with local rangers to help them out and also

to get as close as you can in the wild to a saltwater crocodile.

'Tonight, we're hunting a particular croc

'that the rangers know has been taking a bit too much of an interest

'in some fishermen on the riverbank.

Jonathan's going to be in charge of getting hold of the croc

once we get close, using these prongs,

which are going to go into the really hard scales

at the back of the neck of the crocodile.

That might seem a little bit cruel, but to be honest,

these creatures are so strong, so hardy,

that's going to be little more than a pinprick would be to us.

But it should be enough to draw the croc in close to the boat

where we can get control over it.

'After several hours of searching,

'one of the rangers thinks he's spotted our croc.'

OK, up here, look. Just go to your right.

-He's mid-stream there.

-Yeah.

'Now, at this point, I have to be honest,

'I didn't really think this was a very big crocodile.

'The eyes that I'd seen seemed to be quite close together.

'But as we brought it in closer,

'we found out we'd caught our monster.'

Whoa, he's a good size!

Bigger than I thought.

OK, you got a snout rope there?

Starting to roll...here he comes!

The croc's rolling.

This is, er... part of the way it feeds.

Using...clamping down those massive jaws

and using its bulk to tear its prey apart,

but it's also using that now to try and escape the noose.

You can feel the power of it, it's lifting the boat up and down.

As if to prove a point, he tries to eat the boat!

Watch what you're doing with the camera.

Do you want to get the snout rope on?

OK, Charlie. Yep.

-Good job.

-That's it.

-He's got two on him.

-OK, pull him up.

GROWLS

'Trust me, the croc will be absolutely fine tied up here,

'although he is a bit cross.

'The important thing is that with his mouth taped up,

'he can't bite anyone.'

This croc's probably too big to get on to the boat,

so I think they'll drag him back to the ramp and get him on to dry land,

and suss out his condition, then work out a plan

about what we're going to do with this monster.

'A crocodile that's playing dead takes quite some shifting.'

Right. So now that he's out of the water,

even though he has had his major weapon, his jaws,

taken out of the equation with that hard sticky tape,

you can really appreciate what it is

that makes this such an incredibly powerful animal.

Look at the size of the tail down there!

Next to Mark the cameraman.

I mean, that is just packed with muscle,

and all the way up here there's nothing spare,

even though this animal really isn't in the best of condition.

It really is a terrifying-looking creature.

He's absolutely magnificent.

As close to a living dragon as you'll ever get.

When you've got the animal here you can see why it is

that this croc could become a potential danger.

I mean, he's been in a fair few fights

with some other, larger crocs.

Some of his feet are a bit mangled, he's got some nasty scarring,

and he's looking a bit thin.

Obviously not a croc in absolute peak condition,

and that's why he's turned from his usual prey,

fish which swim quite fast,

to picking up scraps and getting too close to people.

And it's not that much of a leap from where he is now

to actually taking a person.

So he's going to be taken now

and probably live out the rest of his days very happy in captivity.

But...the size, the strength of this animal here

is just the tip of the iceberg

and that's why the saltwater croc has to go on the Deadly 60.

You might debate some of my choices for the list

but NOT this one - the salty!

It has power, speed

and a bite like a dinosaur.

An awesome predator and one that can hunt humans.

Say no more.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd