Who doesn't love crocodiles? Captain Hook, I suppose. And anyone living near the Nile. Most fish, probably. Actually just about anything living near water in their territory.
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| Looks lovable to me! |
Let's start this again. Who loves crocodiles?
Adam Britton does! I've never met him in person, but we move in some of the same Internet circles (specifically, forums at
QT3). He and his wife Erin have
their own consultancy business called Big Gecko ("wildlife management, training, research and filming with crocodiles"), and run the
crocodilian.com site and
blog.
The first time I saw Adam in action was on 60 Minutes a few years ago. He was an expert on the team when
Anderson Cooper went diving with Nile Crocodiles. I recommend that video, very interesting (and a mite frightening). He and rest of the Big Gecko crew have plenty of other film credits to their name as well.
Adam and the rest of Big Gecko play host to crocodiles as well as going to them in the wild. Their adult male saltwater crocodile is named Smaug, a Tolkien reference that I certainly appreciate. I've seen quite a few pictures of him over the years that Adam has posted, such as
this and
this from
crocodilian.com.
The Brittons don't discriminate by the size of the crocodile. Adam is running the
Tiny Toothies crowd-funding project to raise funds to study the pygmy freshwater crocodile in northern Australia. As I write this, they've raised about two-thirds of what they need to get the project going, with a week left to go. There's some interesting donation rewards - like a chance to swim with Smaug, though perhaps that one isn't for everyone.
I've made a small donation, and I encourage others to help out. They're cute (as far as crocodiles go), and it's for science!
Edit: And the funding goal was reached, with most of a day left on the clock! Congratulations, Brittons!
