A U.S. hunter has shot and killed a 15-foot, 1,000-pound crocodile he described as a "legend" while on a hunting trip in Africa.
Garrett Wales of Texas was several days into the trip in the Savé Valley of Zimbabwe when his team of trackers heard that some local villagers had spotted a crocodile in a nearby irrigation pond.
What followed was several days of searching before Wales and his team came across the large reptile—a Nile crocodile—that he later referred to as a "man-eating dinosaur."
Nile crocodiles are found throughout tropical and southern Africa and Madagascar, where they inhabit rivers, marshes, estuaries and swamps.
Crocodiles are similar to alligators, but there are some major differences between the two large reptile species. One is that crocodiles have more effective salt glands, allowing them to survive in salty marine environments that alligators might not be able to tolerate.
As such, crocodile species can be found across the world including in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Australia, whereas alligators are mostly limited to North and South America.
Crocodiles can be huge animals, with adults of both sexes easily exceeding 500 lbs and measuring up to 20 feet in length, according to SeaWorld.
The crocodile that Wales shot was indeed a big one. Speaking to hunting community and news website Field & Stream, the Texas man said he first came across the animal after a couple of days of stalking the pond where it had reportedly been seen by locals.
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"There was this legend of this croc that lived there, but no-one we knew had actually seen it," he said. Wales told Field & Stream that the crocodile was a threat to locals, who used the pond to collect water and wash clothes in.
Wales's first sighting was a brief one. He spotted the animal next to the pond, but it slid into the water before he could get a shot.
It wasn't until the fifth day that he got the kill he wanted, just as he and his team were about to take a break for lunch. Before that, they decided to go for one more lap of the pond.
"Lo and behold, we come around the corner and we were expecting to maybe see him in the reeds, but he was on our side of the bank just five to seven yard from us."
Wales aimed his rifle and fired. Wales said it took nine people to transport the animal afterwards.
"It was an experience I'll never forget," Wales wrote in a Facebook post he published on September 8. "A proper, man-eating dinosaur of a croc." He included several photos of the huge animal, one of which shows it hung up under a canopy, dwarfing a couple of people standing nearby.
His Facebook post has attracted some controversy from users opposed to hunting, with one calling the killing "disgusting."
Newsweek has reached out to Wales for comment.
Update, 9/13/22, 7:35 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to include an embedded link to Wales' Facebook post.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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