A famous Northern Territory crocodile has come on top in an unlikely showdown with a bull shark in the Adelaide River.
Travellers on a boat tour in Kakadu National Park were treated to a ringside seat as Brutus, the 5.5- metre-long saltie apparently caught and then ate a bull shark that got too close.
When the tour guide spotted Brutus with something clenched between his huge jaws, he swung the boat around to reveal the 80-year-old croc crunching down on a bull shark.
One of the tourists, Andrew Paice, managed to capture some remarkable images of the event.
“We were obviously trying to spot crocodiles, we didn’t think sharks would be in that water too,” Mr Paice told the Sydney Morning Herald. “The shark was still alive, it was still wriggling around quite a lot and thrashing around. It was amazing to see, and to see it so clearly as well.”
Brutus is well known in the area and is missing a front leg and most of his teeth … but he appeared to be more than a match for the shark.
“We watched it for probably a good five or 10 minutes,” said Mr Paice. “The crocodile slid back into the water with the shark, and then the crocodile started to take it back into the mangroves to have it.”
A Taronga Zoo spokesman said a shark would usually be able to evade a crocodile in deeper water, but at shallower depths it was “entirely feasible” for a crocodile to overpower a shark.
Adelaide river or Alligator river? The Adelaide I think is well south of Kakadu and we have photos of a croc in the Adelaide River with one front leg missing.
Cheers
Rod