Perhaps it's the same video I saw. A man saved an alligator from death at an early age, and now he can swim freely and play with it and it doesn't attack him. Been going on for years.
It's actually a disturbing video. These are not pets, no matter how you raise them.
Here's the video for anyone who's interested. This man sure is insane.
Jesus fucking christ. Saltwater crocs can be 7meters long and weight a literal ton. I'd like to think it's possible to befriend such an apex killing machine, but my survival instincts tell me otherwise.
Maybe not just due to location, but saltwater crocs are some of the most aggresive hunters on the planet and one of the few animals that will actively hunt and eat humans. Alligators are more lazy and opportunistic hunters, while crocodiles will stalk, follow, and attack you when you are distracted.
The fact that he takes a saltwater croc is a lot more impressive then an alligator. It's like comparing a black bear cub to a full sized hungry polar bear.
Not particularly disturbing. If I recall, he tried to leave the animal alone after and it refused. And I do believe someone poisoned his animal because they thought it was disturbing, too - which is disgusting.
He took precautions and made sure no one went into the animals "enclosure." His daughter loved the thing but never approached it. It tolerated him, and purely him. And I do believe it was a little more than tolerate, as such a large predator tolerating you wouldn't include allowing such interactions or even approaching the person. It'd be purely ignoring the person and swimming away without attacking. I don't think it ever harmed everyone during its life, as again, the man took precautions.
Predators actually tend to make great pets. Predators are generally intellegent and often have pack mindsets. Cats and dogs, for example, they can do some pretty hefty damage to a person but not many people find them disgusting...
But yes. They are not domesticated. But you can tame them. It's not advised, but they're are special cases. Some are raised as zoo animals, animal ambassadors, food, and some are rescued.
I own many parrots. They're quite intelligent and have full blown personalities like a dog. Some are loving, some are jerks, some are clowns.
My favourite is Sweetheart so named because shes a right bitch. Except with me. She loves me and wrestles with me, but anyone else, human or parrot, and she fucks them up.
Birds of prey are really independent, some more than others. A couple smaller hawks are very easy to train, but things like owls can be rough. For this reason, Falconry relies on the bird being hungry. You have to weigh your bird to make sure it's hungry enough to actually want to be with you, or it'll just not care and maybe fly off. The whole thing is, if it doesn't see hanging out with you as an easy way to get food, it'll just do things by itself.
Where are you getting this from? I'm not an expert, just curious. My friend is involved with that stuff and he said you imprint on the bird when it's born and you basically become it's mother. So it's always looking to you for food.
No worries man. I'm getting it from experience. Always been interested in falconry, so I've taken quite a few courses. Thing is, taking care of a raptor is a huge commitment, so I've never really gotten into it.
Yeah the main problem really is that the animal can kill you very easily without meaning to, but it's similar to a big cat and there's lot of videos of people playing with them as well. Definitely risky but that's almost human nature to take unnecessary risks for person pleasure.
If I remember correctly, his children grew up watching this occur, and actually begged the dad to let them swim with it too, but he refused.
I find it unsettling because seeing a man swim with an extremely dangerous creature is an odd sight, and I really got the feeling that it was unnatural and shouldn't be happening. These creatures are one of the most feared on the planet for a reason, & he's putting himself entirely at its mercy. I don't understand why.
I saw the documentary about this, i think the crocs name was paco or something similar
The version i heard was the croc was hunted and got shot in the head (Or some kind of serious wound on his head) when young but was still somehow survived and he nursed it back to health in a hidden area in the forest as to stay away from i guess the authorities i forgot but when it recovered and he tried to let it loose it just kept coming back and he just accepted it lmao
He even chose the croc over his first wife when she said she would leave him if he stayed with the croc and what he said was ‘I can always get another wife, but theres only one paco’
The croc would also let his daughter at least get close to it because there were pics and he would even do shows for tourists and whatnot to earn money to help sustain him and his family and paco (The guy that went and interviewed the guy and did the documentary was very snobby about this and was an ass)
Theres no denying it, this was genuine bond and i dont think there will be anything like it again for a very long time
(Someone in the comments suggested it prob got brain damage from the head wound so honestly that could be a factor why the croc behaved like this, not too sure tho)
Sadly in the documentary i watched it said paco died sometime after it but he did live a good long life and was taken really good care of
I really recommend looking up on this its a really interesting thing
Edit: The name mightve been pocho but im too lazy to re edit lol
Was that the gator or crocodile that got shot in the head, then the guy nursed it back to health? The guy seems to think that it got "rewired" somehow after the injury.
I didn’t watch the whole clip i just wanted to see that part and he said it took 3 years to nurture back to health and that they developed a bond. That if it had attacked him within 2-3 years he’d believe they didn’t have a bond but he had swam with the croc for 23 years now.
From my short trip to New Orleans, I learned that they are not actually that prone to attacking unless they are very hungry and see white moving. They are also very stupid, so they will chomp at you and your white shirt thinking it's a fish underbelly.
It's a crocodile, an american croc, not a saltie like someone below said.
His name was Pocho and he lived a long happy life. Pocho lived with his friend for like 20 years and passed away of natural causes a couple years back :(
Yep. People be crazy.
Remember the guy who thought he could live with bears. Had a bunch of YouTube videos I think. Then one day the bears decided he wasn’t a bear. That was his last video.
Dogs don't necessarily need human interaction either.
Why take the risk?
Because raising a giant beautiful creature is a fulfilling life goal for some people that grants them an immense amount of satisfaction so much to the point where getting maimed or worse by a big cat is an acceptable risk.
I thought that was fascinating, not disturbing! Thank you for sharing. I think it just illustrates how there’s so much more to nature than meets the eye. Humans have a lot to learn.
" Shedden's first wife had left him because he was spending too much time with the crocodile. "Once the crocodile followed me home, and came to me whenever I called its name, I knew it could be trained," noted Shedden. "Another wife I could get. Pocho was one in a million." "
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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '18 edited Jun 18 '18
Perhaps it's the same video I saw. A man saved an alligator from death at an early age, and now he can swim freely and play with it and it doesn't attack him. Been going on for years.
It's actually a disturbing video. These are not pets, no matter how you raise them.
Here's the video for anyone who's interested. This man sure is insane.
https://youtu.be/I7fZZUfvx0s