Perhaps the world’s most famous reptile, Elvis the Crocodile stunned visitors with his almighty strength when keepers gave the 4.75 metre crocodile a quarter of a cow for his milestone 59th birthday. The 500kg beast shot out of the water, grabbed onto the massive carcass, and performed the world-famous “death-roll” to claim his prize.
Elvis gained world-wide attention in 2011 when he ate his keeper’s lawnmower, earning him the title of “Australia’s Crankiest Crocodile”. Since then, many of Elvis’ videos online find themselves going viral including him destroying a pool pump in his enclosure being used for cleaning earlier this year!
This morning, guests gathered around Elvis’s enclosure, witnessing him swiftly charge out of the water, and engage in an epic tug-of-war with four of the Reptile Park’s keepers. Once Elvis had grabbed onto the meat, he performed mulitple gigantic death-rolls, effortlessly tearing off a massive 30kg chunk of meat from the cow carcass. Knowing he had his treat; he began fiercely thrashing his head around to tear apart the meat.
Billy Collett, Park Manager at the Australian Reptile Park, commented on the dangerous activity, stating, “Elvis was absolutely fired up! Once he grabbed onto that meat there was no letting go! Then, the death-rolling started, taking the show to a whole new level.”
Mr Collett added, “Giving him this type of food provides excellent enrichment for him. In the wild, he would easily take down a prey item this large, so giving him this treat, is allowing him to mimic natural behaviours he’d utilise in the wild.”
Elvis came to the Australian Reptile Park in 2011 from the Northern Territory where he was causing havoc to fisherman’s boats in Darwin Harbour. He has a reputation for keeping staff on their toes, so the process of giving him such a large food item needs to be cautiously thought out.
Visitors to the Australian Reptile Park can see Elvis, Australia’s crankiest saltwater crocodile in action during the Elvis Show at 1:30pm everyday in the summer school holidays.
Saltwater crocodiles were once hunted to the brink of extinction in Australia but following their status to be legally protected in QLD, NT and WA, their numbers have made a full recovery, and they are now listed as least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
