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malaise
(296,076 posts)Love it.
dware
(18,060 posts)It's amazing what bravery and adrenaline will do to the human body.
Arkansas Granny
(32,265 posts)
Glimmer of Hope
(5,823 posts)milestogo
(23,073 posts)mysteryowl
(9,315 posts)It is a horrible experience of terrific pain to have the eyes gouged out, plus the animal now is going to live this way, blind.
And to mention that the croc was just being a croc. It was it's nature to eat something.
I realize the courage of the young girl and the victory of saving of her friend. Good! But don't forget the animal was maimed for life.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)...then the details might not be entirely accurate.
As related in the story, the oldest person present was the 11 year old in question.
Far be it from me to question what might have happened on a riverbank in Zimbabwe, however what any adult would have been able to confirm is that the 11 year old was the oldest in a group of children out swimming, one of the younger ones was injured, and the 11 year old says that it was the result of an croc attack she fended off.
A variety of realities are consistent with those facts, but it is unlikely that anyone has examined the croc.
Response to mysteryowl (Reply #7)
cab67 This message was self-deleted by its author.
skypilot
(9,128 posts)...to be eaten alive. I'll take a blinded croc over a devoured child any day. Yes, the croc was just doing what crocs do but the girl was also doing what people do: saving another person.
Leith
(7,864 posts)Dunno about you, but I am much happier that a 9 year old child is still alive than a crocodile's loss of a lunch and its eyesight.
I'll trade the croc's horrible experience of terrific pain that it brought upon itself by attacking the child in the first place with that of the victim's experience of jaw pressure biting strength 4 times that of a lion. Crocodiles kill their prey by crushing whatever part of it they get hold of, then dragging it under the water to drown.
My sympathies are with the human children.
mysteryowl
(9,315 posts)How about both.
cab67
(3,744 posts)Many people in Africa are dependent on local rivers for water. They're generally pretty good at knowing where they can safely wash clothes, wash themselves or collect water, but crocodiles still attack several hundred people a year on the continent, and about half of the attacks are fatal. Where we see a fellow animal, they see a threat to their existence.
Marengo
(3,477 posts)alphafemale
(18,497 posts)That is a very suspicious statement.
Like something someone that hated liberals would expect liberals to make.
mysteryowl
(9,315 posts)I am glad the children are okay. That is not the point.
exboyfil
(18,359 posts)When asked about it.
LuvNewcastle
(17,821 posts)I expect they'll have life-long friendship.
hlthe2b
(113,947 posts)
erlewyne
(1,115 posts)To clean up the swamp.
volstork
(5,836 posts)badass.
cab67
(3,744 posts)Background - I work on crocodile anatomy for a living.
It is extremely unlikely that anyone, at any age, could have gouged out the eyes of a crocodile with his or her fingers. Crocodiles have both outer and inner eyelids (nictating membranes), and their outer eyelids have small bones (palpebral bones). An animal's first instinct when its eyes are attacked is to shut its lids. Moreover, a crocodile's optic nerve is fairly robust.
If the events happened as described by the girl, it's a lot more likely that the girl jammed her fingers into the crocodiles eyes, and that the crocodile was reacting to the surprise and pain of having its eyes poked at. The eyes themselves were most likely still intact.
I'd want more information on a couple of things:
1. The wounds on the younger girl. Are they consistent with a crocodile bite? People in that part of Africa are familiar with crocodiles and their attacks, but I'd still want to know whether they're bites, and whether they indicate the size of the crocodile.
Speaking of which, 2. I'd want to know more about the size of this crocodile. If it was more than a couple of meters in length, it would have shaken the 11-year-old off its head relatively easily. This, of course, could have prompted the animal to unintentionally release the other girl, but both girls would have needed to get out of there in a real hurry. Alternatively, if it was a small crocodile that was attacking the younger girl, it's more credible that an 11-year-old could have gotten it to back off. (Of course, a smaller crocodile would be less able to drag anything as big as a child into the water.)
Another point - if the little girl was bitten by a crocodile, she's going to need serious medical treatment. Crocodile jaws are incredibly powerful. Even if they don't break the skin, the force of their teeth hitting flesh causes tissue damage that inevitably leads to localized necrosis, and this can bring on some serious staph infections. Plus, crocodiles don't brush their teeth, and if the teeth did break the skin, those wounds are likely to get infected. (I say this from direct personal experience.)
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)People love these stories. They don’t care if they’re true.
