Tapping The Source

from www.crocodilian.com

This picture comes from Hank Schinkel, Operations Manager for Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia, and was taken on the South Alligator River. It's one of those situations where I'd like to show you the original, uncompressed image, because the smaller version here doesn't quite do it justice.

This spectacular photograph shows saltwater crocodile congregating around a freshwater / saltwater interface. Due to massive amounts of rain in the late wet season, freshwater continues to flow off the floodplains and into the tidal river - this photograph was taken in mid July 2006, at a time when the floodplains would have normally dried out weeks earlier. The crocodiles are taking advantage of this event, snatching fish as they're swepth through the water before entering the river. As there's plenty of food around, the crocs are willing to tolerate each other much more than usual. Salties are not known for their tolerance, so you might call this an uneasy truce.