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Humans tend to have this strange idea that we have some kind of deal with the animal kingdom. That just because we are smarter than any other species, we are somehow exempt from the status of “prey”. And while it's true that some attacks on humans are a simple case of mistaken identity, such as a shark mistaking a surfer for a turtle or a seal, there are instances of predatory animals actively hunting humans. The classic example of this is the Lions of Tsavo, two lions that attacked numerous construction workers on the Kenya-Uganda railway, eventually adapted into the live action movie “The Ghost and the Darkness”. However, this is just one example and does not prove an overall trend.
To try and further answer this anomaly it is useful to examine the saltwater Crocodile, as it possesses a storied past of fatal run-ins with humans. But are these deaths merely mistaken identity or are crocodiles really the cold-blooded killers portrayed in movies like Crawl and the Lake Placid series? Forest Galante is a Freelance biologist specializing in marine biology and herpetology and spoke on the Joe Rogan experience podcast at length about crocodilian predatory tendencies.
Galante started by giving us some valuable background on crocodiles saying that they had reached the peak of their evolution a long time ago. Podcast host Joe Rogan proposed the analogy of a hammer, noting that the hammers of today are not so different from the hammers from 1000 years ago. He also pointed out that there are different sizes of hammers the same way there are different sizes of crocodilians, with some species of caiman only reaching about 15lbs and the Nile crocodile growing up to 1,200 lbs.
However, the conversation soon shifted to chilling historical examples of crocodiles killing humans, and not just one or two but thousands. Forest shared the story of the Ramree massacre from WWII where allied forces had pushed Japanese soldiers into the swamps of Ramree island off the coast of Myanmar. “In the course of like 2 days 1000 Japanese soldiers were eaten by saltwater crocodiles, some reports say it was over 2 weeks, but the general consensus is 1000 soldiers were eaten by crocodiles in a very short amount of time” (2:42-3:03). Even though podcasts are generally not perceived as bastions of journalistic integrity, this seems to be damning evidence of the crocodile’s murderous tendencies, especially because when Forest was on Ramree island studying the massacre, a local boy lost his arm in a crock attack. Forest did concede that the conditions were a perfect storm, the soldiers had been hunting animals that were the crocks primary food source and the crocks did not have any other options for a protein packed meal.
The biggest takeaway from their conversation was not that crocodiles specifically target humans but rather that they do not distinguish us from other sources of food. Unfortunately, if crocodiles lack a sufficient food source or humans present an easy meal, crocodiles will not only attack, but will actively study and set up an ambush for humans. “Crocodiles will hunt human beings; they will lock in outside of a small village or an area where someone is collecting water. They will spend weeks watching, studying the pattern, learning the behavior and just wait for the perfect time where they can sink under, sit right there waiting for someone to gather water. In my opinion they are not distinguishing that from another prey animal, they just know this thing is coming to water, here, at this time, at this pattern and they will absolutely target people.” (5:36-6:02).
So, to answer the question in the title of the article, yes, crocodiles do hunt humans. However, it is unfair to assume that they do this because they are vicious cold-blooded killers as Hollywood would have us believe. A crocodile's sole motivation is food, they do not kill humans because they like to kill, they kill humans because they like to eat. This does not mean that all crocodiles need to be hunted to extinction it means that humans need to take measures to ensure that crocodiles do not have the opportunity to view you as food.
Full Podcast JRE #1403 W/ Forrest Galante
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