A man who had too much to drink is recovering today after he attempted to ride a 16-foot saltwater crocodile at a zoo in Australia and was bitten in the leg.
The 36-year-old man broke into the wildlife park after he was thrown out of a bar. He tried to sit on one of the crocodiles, named Fatso, and give him a pat on the head. Police say Fatso didn't appreciate the gesture and bit him.
"Fatso has taken offense to this and has spun around and bit this man on the right leg," Sgt. Roger Haynes of Broome said in a press conference.
The man is lucky to be alive.
Fatso, a 16-foot (5 meter) long saltwater crocodile, lies next to the flashlight left by a drunken tourist who scaled a barbed wire fence at the Broome Crocodile Park in northwest Australia to pat him. When the 36-year-old sat on Fatso's back, the crocodile turned around and bit him on the leg. The man survived.
"Saltwater crocodiles ... once they get hold of you, are not renowned for letting you go," Haynes said, according to The Associated Press.
The zoo's owner, Malcolm Douglas, said the cool weather may have saved the man's life. "They're cold-blooded animals, so their reflexes slow down," Douglas told The Australian. "If it had been a hot night, he would have been dead."
After sustaining a nasty flesh wound, the man headed back to the bar where he had been kicked out before his reptilian romp. Mark Phillips, the bar's manager, told the BBC that the man returned to the pub that night with pieces of bark sticking out of his leg. He's expected to fully recover.
Top Croc??
