Crocodiles hunt for humans, so be prepared when you go to the north of the country.

On average about one person a year is killed by a crocodile in Australia. That is almost five times more than the death by the notorious sharks. Of all the dangerous animals the crocodile is the only one which will deliberately hunt humans. In Australia live two distinct varieties: the `Man Hunting Saltwater Crocodile` and the Freshwater Crocodile (usually shy and rather harmless). The good news is: Crocodiles cannot survive in water cooler than 28 degrees, so students will not encounter them roughly south of the line Cairns-Broome. 

 

'Salties', the larger and more aggressive of the two need warm water (28-33 degrees Celsius) to digest their food. they can be identified by their rounded snouts as opposed to the narrow snout of the Freshwater Crocodile. They are often much larger than their cousins. The Australian 'salty' is the largest crocodile in the world, growing to 6 m and weighing 1.5 tonnes. It can pull a cow from rivers edge, drag it underwater and drown it. Compared to a shark, its jaws are not strong and its teeth are not sharp, so it prefers to drown its prey and then wedge the carcass under a submerged tree and wait for it to decay.