iStockphoto / Yvan Tessier
A cheeky crocodile in South Africa had a safari guide howling with laughter. The crocodile crashed a couple’s picnic while they were on safari and stole their beer cooler.
Once it made off with the cooler, it then had to fend off another crocodile who came swimming along and wanted to claim the cooler for itself. This all came moments after the visitors to South Africa’s Rietspruit Game Reserve had just had a close encounter with a cheetah.
The Rietspruit Game Reserve is a private nature reserve in the northeast part of South Africa. It is relatively close to the Botswanan border with South Africa and due north of Pretoria.
Video of the inquisitive crocodile stealing the cooler full of beer was posted to Facebook by LatestSightnings. It is narrated by Davout Wolhuter who was out for a picnic with Rowena Mould who can also be seen in the video.
Comments on the video include:
“Best incident and video of the year 2023.”
“Just like that??!! All (the) beer’s gone??”
“That is a story no one would believe without a video..great one.”
Davout Wolhuter told Rarest Sightings “The crocodile slowly approached our picnic area. We all retreated to the safety of the vehicle. It then turned its attention toward our bright blue cooler box. At first, it rested its jaws on top of the cooler box, but then, in a moment, it snatched the cooler box in its jaws and made a hasty retreat back to the water.”
They said the croc then swam off with the beer cooler that also had snacks in it. The croc then tried to ‘death roll’ the cooler into submission.
Shortly thereafter, another crocodile came swimming up and attempted to steal the beer cooler away for itself. He said “the two of them went at the cooler box as if it was an antelope they had killed.”
Based on this ‘Crocodilian Species Range‘ map in National Geographic, the species here is a Nile Crocodile.
In what appears to be just a big day for crocodilian content on Facebook, another video was posted thousands of miles away.
This one shows a dinosaur-sized alligator lumbering across the street in Naples, Florida.
Just another day in Florida…