A drunk man who climbed into a crocodile enclosure in Australia and attempted to ride a 5m (16ft) long crocodile has survived his encounter.
The crocodile, called Fatso, bit the 36-year-old man's leg, tearing chunks of flesh from him as he straddled the reptile.
He received surgery to serious wounds to his leg and is recovering in hospital, police say.
He had been chucked out of a pub in the town of Broome for being too drunk.
The man, who was not named by the police, climbed over a fence and tried to sit on the 800kg (1,800lb) saltwater crocodile.
"Fatso has taken offence to this and has spun around and bit this man on the right leg," Sgt Roger Haynes of Broome police told journalists.
"The crocodile has let him go and he's been able to scale the fence again and leave the wildlife park."
'Right mind'
Malcolm Douglas, the park's owner, said that the crocodile was capable of crushing a man to death with a single bite.
"The man who climbed the fence was fortunate because Fatso was a bit more sluggish than normal, due to the cooler nights we have been experiencing in Broome," said Mr Douglas.
"If it had been warmer and Fatso was more alert, we would have been dealing with a fatality."
"No person in their right mind would try to sit on a 5m crocodile, Saltwater crocodiles, once they get hold of you, are not renowned for letting you go."
The man staggered back to the pub bleeding heavily.
Pub manager Mark Phillips said staff told him that the man reappeared at about 11pm with bits of bark hanging off him and flesh gouged out of his limbs.
"They said he had chunks out of his legs and things like that," Mr Phillips told The West Australian news website.
An average of two people are killed each year in Australia by aggressive saltwater crocodiles, which can grow up to 7m (23 ft) long and weigh more than a tonne.
I have been falldown drunk a couple of times in my life. Many many years ago. I never lost track of what would get me killed either time, I knew better than to drive etc. I assume therefore that this man was likely an idiot when sober as well.
When you're so drunk that you're prepared to do something unbelievably stupid, but not so drunk that you've lost the physical ability to carry it out...
(Though I am also inclined to agree with @W's "the guy must be an idiot sober" theory as well)
Daisy wrote:Got to admire the bloke for heading back to the pub though
It's Australia; where else could he have gone?
As far as I can tell, the whole damn country is a pub full of drunks.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
That's just not true!
We have bottle shops too...
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Got what he deserved, idiot.
