Crocodile attacks on humans are common in places where large crocodilians are native and human populations live. It has been estimated that about 1,000 people are killed by crocodilians each year.CrocBITE, Worldwide Crocodilian Attack Database
About human-crocodile conflict

Charles Darwin University Charles Darwin University (CDU) is an Australian public university with a main campus in Darwin and eight satellite campuses in some metropolitan and regional areas. It was established in 2003 after the merger of Northern Territory University ...

, Northern Territory, Australia.

Species involved in attacks

The two species with the most well-known and documented reputation for preying on humans are the

Nile crocodile The Nile crocodile (''Crocodylus niloticus'') is a large crocodilian native to freshwater habitats in Africa, where it is present in 26 countries. It is widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, occurring mostly in the central, eastern, ...

and

saltwater crocodile The saltwater crocodile (''Crocodylus porosus'') is a crocodilian native to saltwater habitats and brackish wetlands from India's east coast across Southeast Asia and the Sundaic region to northern Australia and Micronesia. It has been list ...

, and these are the perpetrators of the vast majority of both fatal and non-fatal crocodilian attacks. Each year, hundreds of deadly attacks are attributed to the Nile crocodile in Sub-Saharan Africa. Attacks by saltwater crocodiles often occur in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

, Australia,

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

, and the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

. Reviews indicate that at least half of all attacks by the Nile and saltwater crocodiles are fatal (in Australia, however, only about 25% of saltwater crocodile attacks are fatal). The

mugger crocodile The mugger crocodile (''Crocodylus palustris'') is a medium-sized broad- snouted crocodile, also known as mugger and marsh crocodile. It is native to freshwater habitats from southern Iran to the Indian subcontinent, where it inhabits marshes ...

is also very dangerous to humans, killing several people in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

every year and with a fatality rate that is almost as high (slightly less than half of all attacks are fatal). Unlike the predatory attacks by Nile and saltwater crocodiles, victims of mugger crocodiles are often not eaten, indicating that many attacks by this species are

territorial A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

or defensive rather than predatory.Sideleau, B., and Britton A.R.C. (2012). A preliminary analysis of worldwide crocodilian attacks. pp. 111–114. ''In'': Crocodiles. Proceedings of the 21st Working Meeting of the Crocodile Specialist Group, Manila, Philippines. IUCN. Gland, Switzerland, Manila, Philippines. Crocodilians will defend not only themselves, but also their nest and young from anything they perceive as a threat. Eight other species have been involved in fatal attacks on humans, but in far lower numbers than the Nile, saltwater and mugger crocodiles, and also with significantly lower fatality rates (a higher percentage of their attacks are non-fatal). These are the

West African crocodile The West African crocodile, desert crocodile, or sacred crocodile (''Crocodylus suchus'') is a species of crocodile related to – and often confused with – the larger and more aggressive Nile crocodile (''C. niloticus''). Taxonomy Compared ...

(often considered quite harmless, but has been involved in several attacks, also fatal),

American crocodile The American crocodile (''Crocodylus acutus'') is a species of crocodilian found in the Neotropics. It is the most widespread of the four extant species of crocodiles from the Americas, with populations present from South Florida and the coasts ...

(only a few documented fatalities),Sideleau, B. (2015). Recent reports of fatal attacks on humans by crocodiles in Mexico. Crocodile Specialist Group Newsletter 34(2): 21-22. the

Morelet's crocodile Morelet's crocodile ''(Crocodylus moreletii)'', also known as the Mexican crocodile or Belize crocodile, is a modest-sized crocodilian found only in fresh waters of the Atlantic regions of Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. It usually grows to about ...

(typically considered a relatively non-threatening species, but there have been several fatal attacks),

Orinoco crocodile The Orinoco crocodile (''Crocodylus intermedius'') is a critically endangered crocodile. Its population is very small, and they can only be found in the Orinoco river basin in Colombia and Venezuela. Extensively hunted for their skins in the 19 ...

(fatalities recorded in the 1930s and earlier when the species was more common, but today it is very rare),

Cuban crocodile The Cuban crocodile (''Crocodylus rhombifer'') is a small-medium species of crocodile endemic to Cuba. Typical length is and typical weight . Large males can reach as much as in length and weigh more than . Despite its smaller size, it is a hig ...

(generally considered aggressive, but only one confirmed fatality), black caiman (fatal attacks confirmed in Brazil, but possibly underreported because of its remote range),

American alligator The American alligator (''Alligator mississippiensis''), sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile native to the Southeastern United States. It is one of the two extant species in the gen ...

(making up an estimated 6% of fatal crocodilian attacks), and false gharial (only a few confirmed fatalities, all involving very large false gharials). In addition to these, the

freshwater crocodile The freshwater crocodile (''Crocodylus johnstoni''), also known as the Australian freshwater crocodile, Johnstone's crocodile or the freshie, is a species of crocodile endemic to the northern regions of Australia. Unlike their much larger Austr ...

Philippine crocodile The Philippine crocodile (''Crocodylus mindorensis''), also known as the Mindoro crocodile, the Philippine freshwater crocodile, the ''bukarot'' in Ilocano, and more generally as a ''buwaya'' in most Filipino lowland cultures, is one of two spec ...

Siamese crocodile The Siamese crocodile (''Crocodylus siamensis'') is a medium-sized freshwater crocodile native to Indonesia (Borneo and possibly Java), Brunei, East Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The species is critically endangered an ...

, broad-snouted caiman, spectacled caiman,

yacare caiman The yacare caiman (''Caiman yacare''), also known commonly as the jacare caiman, Spanish yacaré, Paraguayan caiman, piranha caiman, red caiman, southern spectacled caiman, ''jacaré'' in Portuguese, and îakaré in Old Tupi, is a species of cai ...

and gharial have been involved in non-fatal attacks.CrocBITE, Worldwide Crocodilian Attack Database
Data

, Northern Territory, Australia. Four of them, the Siamese crocodile, broad-snouted caiman, spectacled caiman and yacare caiman, each are suspected to have been the perpetrator of a single fatal attack on a child (smaller and therefore a more likely target than an adult), although for each of these cases the identity of the species is not completely certain.

Background

An accurate count of annual crocodile attacks on humans is difficult to obtain. Many of the areas in which humans and large crocodiles come into contact are remote,

impoverished Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little

income

, or in areas of political unrest. Crocodile attacks are not always reported to local authorities, and some reports are difficult to verify. Nevertheless, some information does exist: for example, it was reported by

CAMPFIRE A campfire is a fire at a campsite that provides light and warmth, and heat for cooking. It can also serve as a beacon, and an insect and predator deterrent. Established campgrounds often provide a stone or steel fire ring for safety. Campfires ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

that in the first ten months of the year in 2005 crocodiles were the number one cause of death in humans where wildlife was involved – with the number of deaths cited as 13. Unlike other "man-eating" crocodiles, such as the saltwater crocodile, the Nile crocodile lives in proximity to human populations, so contact is more frequent. Although most attacks are not reported, the Nile crocodile is estimated to kill hundreds (possibly thousands) of people each year, which is more than all other crocodilian species combined. One study posited the number of attacks by Nile crocodiles per year as 275 to 745, of which 63% are fatal, as opposed to an estimated 30 attacks per year by saltwater crocodiles, of which 50% are fatal. In both species, the mean size of crocodiles involved in nonfatal attacks was about as opposed to a reported range of or larger for crocodiles responsible for fatal attacks. Since a majority of fatal attacks are believed to be predatory in nature, the Nile crocodile can be considered the most prolific predator of humans among wild animals. The most deaths in a single crocodile attack incident may have occurred during the Battle of Ramree Island, on February 19, 1945, in what is now

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. Nine hundred soldiers of an

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

unit, in an attempt to retreat from the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

and rejoin a larger battalion of the Japanese infantry, crossed through of

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

swamps that contained

s. Twenty Japanese soldiers were captured alive by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

, and almost five hundred are known to have escaped Ramree. Many of the remainder may have been eaten by the crocodiles, although since this incident took place during an active military conflict, it is impossible to know how many deaths can be directly attributed to the crocodiles instead of combat-related causes.

List of attacks

It is estimated that each year hundreds of people die from crocodile attacks in Africa – many of these attacks are never reported in the media. Without an accurate reporting system in place, crocodile attacks in Africa are difficult to track and very few are reproduced here. The majority of attacks recorded below have occurred in Southeast Asia and Australia. ;1980s * On March 29, 1987, Ginger Faye Meadows, an American model, was killed by a crocodile while swimming in the

Prince Regent River The Prince Regent River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The headwaters of the river rise in the Caroline Range near Mount Agnes then flow in a north westerly direction. The river enters and flows through the Prince R ...

near Broome before her birthday. She and her friend Jane Burchett were cornered by the crocodile, but she tried to get away from it, thinking she could outswim it before it caught up to her and killed her. ;1990s * On May 22, 1992, an Iban girl, Dayang anak Bayang was killed by ''Bujang Senang'' at Pelaban River, another tributary of the great Batang Lupar River near Lingga in Sri Aman Division,

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. The crocodile was shot to death by several police sharpshooters and Iban hunters. It was the biggest and oldest crocodile ever caught in the area. ;2000s * In January 2001, attacks by mugger crocodiles were reported on tribal population around the Neyyar reservoir in

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

, India. Muggers are raised and periodically released into the reservoir from the Neyyar crocodile centre. This rare display of aggression was found to be the isolated behaviour of an abnormal minority among the Neyyar muggers which are usually not known to attack humans. * In October 2002, 23-year-old German student Isabel von Jordan was killed by a saltwater crocodile in Australia's

Kakadu National Park Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site. Kakadu is also gazetted as a locality, covering the same area as the national park, with 313 people recorded liv ...

while swimming in Sandy Billabong with her sister Valerie and a few other foreign backpackers.Recent crocodile deaths in Australia
Smh.com.au (April 11, 2009). Retrieved on March 19, 2011. The tour guide, Glenn Robless, pleaded guilty to a charge of making a dangerous omission with a suspended prison sentence. * Estimated to be around in length and to weigh more than , Gustave has been credited with killing hundreds of people at the Rusizi River in Burundi. Numerous capture attempts have been made, including using a massive bear trap in 2002; however, Gustave has evaded capture. Gustave is the basis of the film ''

Primeval Primeval may refer to: * Primeval forest, an area of forest that has attained great age * Primeval number, a positive integer satisfying certain conditions * Primeval history, name given by biblical scholars to the first eleven chapters of the Bo ...

'' (originally titled "Gustave"), which follows a news team sent to Burundi to capture Gustave; while doing so they become a target of a warlord in the midst of an African civil war. * In September 2005, Russell Harris, a 37-year-old British engineer, was killed by a large saltwater crocodile while snorkeling off Picnic Beach in Australia. His body was recovered. * On March 19, 2006,

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

medical professor Richard Root, age 68, who had moved to alleviate a shortage of physicians, was killed on a wildlife tour of the

Limpopo River The Limpopo River rises in South Africa and flows generally eastward through Mozambique to the Indian Ocean. The term Limpopo is derived from Rivombo (Livombo/Lebombo), a group of Tsonga settlers led by Hosi Rivombo who settled in the mountain ...

when a crocodile emerged from the river, and pulled him underwater. *In April 2007, a 9-year-old Chinese child was killed in a crocodile pool at the Silver Beach holiday resort in southwest Guangxi region. * On February 8, 2009, 5-year-old Jeremy Doble was attacked by a crocodile in far north

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

Daintree River The Daintree River is a river that rises in the Daintree Rainforest near Cape Tribulation in Far North Queensland, Australia. The river is located about northwest of Cairns in the UNESCO World Heritagelisted Wet Tropics of Queensland. The area ...

, Australia. Police confirmed that human remains found in a saltwater crocodile caught nearby were those of the boy. * On March 15, 2009, 11-year-old Briony Goodsell was killed by a crocodile when swimming with friends at Lambell’s Lagoon near

Humpty Doo Humpty Doo is a small town in Australia's Northern Territory, situated just south of the Arnhem Highway, approximately 40 km from Darwin. At the , Humpty Doo had a population of 4,380 people. Its local government area is Litchfield Munici ...

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

. ;2010s * In April 2010, a 25-year-old woman from New Jersey was killed by a saltwater crocodile while snorkeling in India's Andaman Islands. Havelock Island, where the attack took place, lies from the Lohabarrack Salt Water Crocodile Sanctuary. Her boyfriend caught the attack on film; the camera was recovered two days later along with her remains. * On December 7, 2010, South African outdoorsman Hendrik Coetzee was killed after being attacked by a Nile crocodile. Coetzee was leading a kayaking expedition through Congo's

Lukuga River The Lukuga River is a tributary of the Lualaba River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that drains Lake Tanganyika. It is unusual in that its flow varies not just seasonally but also due to longer term climate fluctuations. Location ...

when a crocodile, which had been concealed below the surface of the river, attacked him from behind. The crocodile pulled him from his kayak into the water and he never resurfaced. Neither Coetzee's remains nor any of his clothing or gear was found. * On September 4, 2011,

Lolong Lolong (died 10 February 2013) was the largest crocodile in captivity. He was a saltwater crocodile (''Crocodylus porosus'') measured at , and weighed , making him one of the largest crocodiles ever measured from snout-to-tail. In November 201 ...

, a 20.2-foot (6.17-metre) saltwater crocodile believed to be the largest ever captured, was trapped in the southern Philippines after a spate of fatal attacks. The crocodile is suspected of eating a farmer who went missing in July in the town of

Bunawan Bunawan, officially the Municipality of Bunawan ( ceb, Lungsod sa Bunawan; tgl, Bayan ng Bunawan), is a 1st class municipality in the province of Agusan del Sur, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 47,512 people. B ...

, and of killing a 12-year-old girl whose head was bitten off two years before. * On May 29, 2016, 46-year-old Cindy Waldron and her childhood friend, Leann Mitchell, 47, went for a late night swim at Thornton Beach in

Daintree National Park The Daintree rainforest is a national park in Far North Queensland, Australia, northwest of Brisbane and northwest of Cairns. It was founded in 1981 and is part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland. In 1988 it became a World Heritage Site. The p ...

, Australia, to celebrate the end of Mitchell's cancer treatment. Waldron was snatched by a crocodile and called for help. Mitchell tried to save her but was unsuccessful. What were believed to be Waldron's remains were found inside a 14-foot crocodile on June 3, 2016. * On September 14, 2017, 24-year-old ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

'' journalist Paul McClean was reportedly killed by a crocodile near

Arugam Bay Arugam Bay ( ta, அறுகம் குடா), known locally as "Arugam Kudah", is situated on the Indian Ocean in the dry zone of Sri Lanka's southeast coast, and a historic settlement of the ancient Batticaloa Territory (Mattakallappu D ...

in Sri Lanka. McClean stopped by a lagoon known as Crocodile Rock to wash his hands when a crocodile bit him and dragged him into the water. The lagoon is known for its large population of crocodiles. *On April 30, 2018, 25-year-old former tennis player Zanele Ndlovu was canoeing on the Upper Zambezi River in

when she was pulled underwater by a Nile crocodile. Ndlovu lost her right arm in the attack. * In July 2018, a man was reportedly killed by a saltwater crocodile in a breeding farm in West Papua,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. Locals slaughtered 292 crocodiles in revenge. * On January 11, 2019, scientist Deasy Tuwo was eaten alive by a crocodile after falling into an enclosure at a research facility in

North Sulawesi North Sulawesi ( id, Sulawesi Utara) is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the Minahasa Peninsula of Sulawesi, south of the Philippines and southeast of Sabah, Malaysia. It borders the Philippine province of Davao Occidental and Socc ...

. Local police say the crocodile leaped up against the wall of the enclosure during feeding time and grabbed Tuwo, pulling her into the pool and eating parts of her body. *In March 2019, a small research team from Australia visited

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-west ...

to look into why crocodile attacks had greatly increased on the island in the prior decade. 2020s * On November 30, 2021, 18-year-old Amelie Osborn-Smith was attacked by a Nile crocodile in the

Zambezi River The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than hal ...

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

. Osborn-Smith and her friends were able to prevent the crocodile from dragging her underwater, sustaining blood loss as well as serious injuries to her hip, lower leg, and right foot.

Notable attack survivors

* Australian philosopher

Val Plumwood Val Plumwood (11 August 1939 – 29 February 2008) was an Australian philosopher and ecofeminist known for her work on anthropocentrism. From the 1970s she played a central role in the development of radical ecosophy. Working mostly as an inde ...

survived a prolonged saltwater crocodile attack during a solo canoe excursion in

in 1985. Plumwood recounted the details of the attack and her escape in her 1996 essay "Being Prey". Following the attack, she spent a month in intensive care in a Darwin hospital and required extensive skin grafts.

References

External links

;General
CrocBITE
Worldwide Crocodilian Attack Database.

, Northern Territory, Australia. *Keller, Michell
"When crocodiles attack!"
Stanford University Daily (November 19, 2003)
Crocodile attack videosCrocodile kills man securing boat from storm in Philippines
{{Animal bites and stings Attacks Crocodile