Featured Image Credit: ViralPress
Topics: Animals, World News
Poppy Bilderbeck
Philippine police have shared a warning after a tourist hopped into a zoo's crocodile enclosure to take a selfie.
On April 28, a tourist visited Kabug Mangrove Park and Wetlands zoo in Zamboanga Sibugay, Philippines and got even more of an up-close and in-person experience than he bargained for.
The 29-year-old is reported as having spotted what he allegedly believed was a statue of a crocodile and so decided to hop over a fence, wade through water and whip out his phone to take a selfie with it - only to realize very quickly and painfully, the reptile was certainly not a statue.
As crowds of other tourists shouted out to the man to get out, the croc saw its opportunity and pounced, snapping its jaw around the tourist's arm and sinking its teeth into his flesh - and the 15ft-long reptile, named Lalay, didn't just stop there either with the ordeal captured on camera too.
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Police Staff Sergeant Joel Sajolga, of the Siay Municipal Police, told local media: "The tourist was walking around the area, then he saw the crocodile, which he thought was just a plastic fixture.
"He climbed the fence and entered the enclosure, and the crocodile attacked him."
A video shows the croc sinking her teeth into the tourist's arm before moving on to nab a bite of his thigh.
She then flipped him over, rotating him as humans do a rotisserie chicken, in a move better known when performed by a crocodile or alligator as a 'death roll'.
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville explains: "Contrary to popular belief, crocodiles can’t chew, so they use a powerful bite coupled with a full-bodied twisting motion - a death roll - to disable, kill, and dismember prey into smaller pieces.
"The lethal movement is characteristic of both alligators and crocodiles and has been featured in numerous movies and nature documentaries."
The tourist is reported as having spent a staggering 30 minutes in the enclosure getting far too close for comfort with Lalay before one of the zoo's animal handlers showed up.
It's reported they hit the croc over the head using a piece of cement which led to her letting go of the tourist.
Despite spending half-an-hour in the jaws of the croc, the tourist has lived to tell the tale.
It's reported he was whisked to hospital and received a whopping total of over 50 stitches for his wounds.
While onlookers were 'glad the man is alive,' others questioned 'why he would do such a stupid thing'.
Sgt. Sajolga resolved by warning others against any sort of similar behavior when visiting a zoo.
He said: "This kind of behavior is very dangerous. Nobody should ever enter an animal’s enclosure at the zoo.
"He put other people’s lives at risk and he is very lucky to have survived."