gee,,ya know,,really Indiana isn't THAT bad a place,,

No Way it is lovely here, it's only because of the cyclone and all the water that is around that they have come into homes, normally they stay close to the water, they aonly travel in the wet, but right now they can go where they want. and its soooo nice here you all should come and visit,

They grow em big in Texas.

This was a 7 Meter monster killed in someone's back yard.




http://loo.me/2006/09/biggator/


The gator with the deer in its mouth actually was smaller than the one caught.

What is worst and people really do not understand this at all is that gators are Pack Hunters too! The largest one drags prey unto the water and they all clamp down, all twist and tear off a piece and all swallow until the prey is gone.

What is even freakier is that people have raised gators and they turn out to know who their owners were even when they get huge. There is a herp (Short for herpetologist) in Australia who raised a Salty female to adulthood. It blocks the others from getting near her owner. He actually will lay down next to the animal and it shows some degree of affection towards him only. ANYONE ELSE GOING INTO THE CAGE RISKS GETTING EATEN! It even faced off with the male she is housed with to protect her owner. He is the only thing that gator shows any protective instinct over at all. They are a lot smarter than people give them credit for. Granted this might be a fluke but a Guatemalan man rescued a mature American Crocodile that was shot and left for dead. When he tried to release it it followed him home and never left and he has had it around over 20 years. They swim together, he takes it on walks. It does not bit him at least but he even concedes that you never ever put anything into its mouth you don't want to loose. A Mexican man owns an American Alligator and he likewise brushes its teeth daily! The locals are terrified of it. A Florida family has a 12 footer they had since a hatching and it cohabits with a pig and a dog and sleeps in the same bed as the two animals that usually are its favorite food. They made news having to fight a legal battle over an animal they take for walks with the other two.

I'm not saying make a pet out of one for protection. You have to know the animal or you will eventually get eaten. You don't just make a pet out of something that gets so much larger than yourself.

So who still thinks we are an Apex Predator?

WHO MAKES YOU HAPPY THE CROCS LOLLLLLLLL kidding sweety you should never feel down hun you did nothing wrong if a person jokes with friends in forums then others should be happy that you have friends that really care about you hun:) no 1 should ever have to change a person cause then thats making someone be who they are not so cmere and give me a big kiss lollllllll hey was on the cheek haha kidding i always friends with all myself be happy sweety lifes to short love ya too:) have a great day or night lolll depends when you get this oh here back at you haha smile now

I saw a thing on the man who swam with his alligator, no way, would I do that.
WQe are only allowed to keep a croc for a pet for 6 months,the croc farms give them out to you to look after for that long, but they do bite even when they are little. But once they hit 6 months you have to hand them back, my kids dont want to hand them back to be made into handbags, so we hant got one.

I would probably wake up one day and find that the kids had put it in the pool.

Y9our alligators have huge heads, and thats a gross way to be eaten just torn apart. ours dont do that, they are more civilised.

They jump out of the water at you as they can move really quickly, then they pul you in or under and do the death roll, which they just rolll over and over under the water with you trapped in their mouth , undtil you are dead, then they take you under the water and wedge you somewhere to rot, as they dont really like to eat you fresh.

They come back for you later when you taste better.
A few people have actually survived because of this as the crocs didnt kill them but wedged them in an air pocket under water, in holes and they where only unconcios, well actually i only know of one lady a few years ago, but that would be yuck, she had a lot of scares where he had held her, but she got out.

WE dont kill them here, normally they catch them and move them as they are protected

not the corcs, I do not want to have them chew my arm off for brekky that would be gross.

I am still laughing through life

LOLLLLLLLL your such a sweetheart thats funny they better not them corcs you say or crocs lolllll your a ball sweety hugsssssss

What baffles me is when people try to compare a Man Eating Tiger to a crocodile. There is no comparison. You relocate a crock and usually it stays relocated. They do not make a point to just hunt humans. They are indiscriminate hunters that eat everything. Tigers and Lions on the other hand are smart enough to acquire tastes. When they get a taste for human flesh they ignore everything else. You relocate them and they come back. They have to be killed. Just because the predator is "smarter" does not mean it is smart enough to know when it is being offered a chance to live. Gaters are dumb enough to not.

Owning a Gator only six months is not long enough to get them past their "Bastard" phase where all reptilians go through. When young they are extra aggressive. My past experience with monitor lizards (which BARELY COMPARE) is that you have to constantly handle them and very cautiously and do so with an emphasis on restraining holds only at first. AS they get older they learn they "Can't" hurt you (unless you let your guard down) but likewise "Normalize" gradually to a less violent and aggressive stance. As they get older if they are shown proper affection (knowing that reptiles are not touchy feeley creatures) they actually will become responsive. My monitor knew its name. It actually would follow me into the kitchen for scraps. I likewise litter box trained it. The big diff though is that a monitor at best gets ten feet long (approximately 3 meters). That is manageable since they eat a lot but not as much as a 5 or six meter crock!

Now Australia does have one lizard I am VERY interested in raising, The Perenti. I would love to get a male and three females and breed them. Perenties are solitary desert lizards though. Mangrove Monitors actually make much better pets since they are semi social.



Perenties are supposed to be really smart for a lizard though. Long and lean! Built for speed! Really pretty looking too!

I havent heard of them, are they what we call a goanna, do they run up trees and grow to eight foot or so.
Because they are a pretty neat lizard, and really agressive except if they are attacked, but not many peole have them as pets that i know of. probably as they are bigger and pretty active

Perentie are North Eastern Australian but I am sure they are called Goannas. The Goannas I am familiar with are the brown Gould's (sand) Goannas, and the speckled Goanna which is also called a Dwarf Goanna cause they don't get very large. Perenti lizards are runners but all monitors can climb. They are not the largest species but they are teh SECOND largest lizard in Australia. I just looked up the name Goanna and it is used for any and all Australian Monitors. If it is long and skinny and has an attitude problem then yes that is the lizard. I love their attitude actually. Once I break them of their biting habit they actually tame down quickly. I do encourage their hunting behaviors. I used to torture my Ornatus monitor by leaving a mouse in a brown paper bag. Problem with that was he assumed all brown paper bags had mice in them so bringing home groceries would be a problem. He would tear up brown paper bags if he was hungry looking for the possibility of mice. I found that to be semi intelligent behavior. His version of begging was trying to climb my leg while I would be making dinner. If he smelled mouse he was going up my leg and his tongue was his mouse radar. He loved chicken scraps too. Frankly ANYTHING that hit the floor he was on. When he got to three and a half feet and learned litter box he got run of my house. He would complain in the morning when I picked him up and put him on my leg but then he would clamp down and soak up some of my body heat in the morning while I ate breakfast. I regret selling that lizard. He started off a shitte head but cultured into a really awesome pet.

I could not see having a gator parked on my lap though. That is far worst than a Great Dane who thinks it is a lap dog! The best you can hope for with a gator is he just turns out to be a great pal and actually defends you from other gators. They do have a certain protective at least for their young for a while. Likewise they do have social structure of a sort. I think they can actually learn the difference between prey and 'not' prey. But the thing is a gator is a gator and gators eat anything that fits in their mouth including each other. AS long as people can appreciate the fact they are eating machines and give them their space its all good! If you choose to live among them though you have to obey the rules if you want to survive among them. Otherwise Darwin steps in and natural selection takes over as human realizes all to late that we are indeed part of the food chain!

I am a firm believer in stick being my friend. A six foot stick made of stout lumber say an 1 1/2" (38 to 40mm) around can save your *** from a gator attack as long as you see it coming. They are not invulnerable to pain. They actually are quite sensitive to pain. If you smack one on the snout it will lash out with its tail. The thing is a charging crock smacked on the snout enough will make it want to seek out prey that puts up less of a fight. The idea is if you can hurt it enough but it can't seem to in its mind hurt you it will decide quickly the sustained injury is not worth the effort. Unless it is flat out starving they actually back off pretty quickly. I was surprised to see how fast they run from a shovel. I seen female gators driven from nests they were guarding by a man with a shovel.

I think people have a tough time wrapping their minds around stuff that isn't cute and cuddly. Who said dragons were supposed to be pretty? I would say crocks sure come close to being dragons. Heck, they have death breath! Anything that eats rotted meat has to have breath that could stall a speeding truck.

My children love snakes, crocs, and lizards, We had a few snakes, that the kids never remembered to keep their house door shut, and you would wake up to find them hanging from the lights and hiding in the house. The kids thought it was a great joke, for some reason not all the visitors did.

Wait until they come home with a Tai Pan and insist on keeping that as a pet! Still, I myself appreciate snakes for what they are but they are lousy pets. I have kept them before but they either eat or hide unless they need to sun.

I think what would raise an eye brow is if your kids are caught riding a crock like a horse!

i dont think you would need to encourage her children to much,

Hmmm My children are know as the wild Mob, I have no idea why. poor Poor anaconda.


Nope defionately no Tai Pans, they had 2 pythons that where about 8 foot, and they where really friendly, they loved curling up around the kids for warmth, when the kids where homeschooled, they would sit and do their school work with the snakes curling up around them.
I love their tongues searching you to see who you are and what you are up to and they feel soo cool when they curl around you , the feel of their skin and the strength in their muscles when they tighten around you for support. they are a gorgeous animal, or reptile.

Hmm could be why I love anaconda so much.

I was actually surprised how strong my ornatis monitor was. My Iguana was not anywhere near as strong. When I would rub his head he would shove it into my hand. His idea of fetch was to run down anything I threw on the floor and if it wasn't food he would sniff it with his tongue and hiss when he realized it wasn't food.

A room mate of mine a few years back had an 11 foot (almost 4 meter) long Burmese Python. I had it wrapped around me standing in front of a grocery store since he was told he could not shop with the snake on him since it was scaring customers. This guy comes up and starts talking to me about the snake. The store's manger walks up and asks the guy about the stuff he didn't pay for and when the guy tried to bolt he got taken down and held for police because he was shoplifting. My roommate's snake caught a shop lifer. Had the guy beat feet away from the store he could have gotten away! Instead he had to ask me a lot of dumb questions about the snake I had wrapped around me.

Funny thing about me is that when I go camping I am always dragging something strange back to camp. One area near Barstow I find desert tortoises pretty easy. They act scared until they realize you got food. Then they hang around the camp site. One I found hung out with us all three days we were in the Barstow desert. It loved salad! It took food from our hands too. Its favorite place to hide was under a beach chair.

Now if anyone is going to ride a crock count on me being that nut job! (I would tie the mouth shut though just in case! SHHHHHHHHHH! Don't tell anyone!)