Thanks for these answers, even if some sound a bit speculative. They address some questions I was sort of wondering about too, such as (1) Once a croc eats someone and finds the meal to be easy pickens, would that croc then become a serial killer because… easy pickens? (2) The suggestion that a man-eating croc was probably predisposed to be more aggressive to begin with.
If the only way to tell which croc ate someone is to cut said croc open and take a look, how do they know which croc to kill? If they cut a croc open and there’s nobody there, do they just sew the crocs back up and turn him loose again? :dubious: (Same question about sharks, I suppose.)
I’ve read from time to time that humans taste terrible, or at least there’s some theory to that effect. Sharks are reputed (I’ve read) to take a bite of someone (like, chomp your arm off) and then spit it out, and then never eat another human. Is that thought to be true? Has a substantial portion of human ever been found in a shark?
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Those other sharks you mention may have had an epiphany — “What have I done ? What have I become ?” — rather than thinking that tasted a bit off, no more humans for me.
The rest fear becoming subjects for a thread here, condemning them for being picky eaters.
Check out a book called “Maneaters” by Peter Capstick which discusses the history of animals that target humans. He discusses lions, tigers, bears, sharks, wolves, crocs, and even cannibals.
He said with lions they definitely get a taste for humans and a pride will teach it to their young so they become quite dangerous. Also that wolves are more dangerous in Europe than in N. America where during wartime wolves have been known to go after wounded soldiers. Very interesting reading.
I’d first read here on this board that some man-eaters, like tigers for instance, do find the relatively high salt content of human blood to be a reason for continuing to target humans as opposed to other prey forms. This article, while not exactly scholarly, does offer some support to that theory. In my mind though that trait is probably relegated to higher intelligence mammals like tigers, leopards, etc and even then is secondary to the simple fact that as previously mentioned we’re just easy prey. I’d think that crocodiles are opportunists that will strike at anything given it’s of a proper size and that they don’t preferentially target us over any other animal foolish or desperate enough to venture into their realm.
I grew up Lousiana when alligators were still making a comeback due to conservation efforts. They were fairly rare when I was little (although I had a pet one named Alexander and once knew a hermit that had one as domesticated as an alligator can possibly be) but they were common when I was a teenager and can be a nuisance now because their rebound in population has been so strong. Alligators are the stoners of the crocodilian family. Louisiana alligators don’t generally harm people at all unless you deliberately seek it out. I swam with them in rivers and lakes in close proximity many times without incident. Florida alligators are a little more dangerous and do kill children, small dogs and even compromised adults occasionally when they aren’t aware enough. Crocodiles are a different story. They can be quite aggressive towards people and they are generally much larger than alligators so eating an unwary person can be an effective feeding strategy for them.
My point is that crocodilians vary greatly in their levels of aggressiveness towards people even though the vast majority of them don’t cause any incidents with people. However, there will inevitably be a few crocodiles at the far end of the bell curve that are so aggressive and used to people that they aren’t safe to be around at all. Once one of those is identified as being a problem, there is little choice but to hunt it down and kill it because abnormal hunting instincts like those will not go away on their own. There are also plenty of crocodiles that are known to be aggressive and people just stay away from them so that they never succeed in killing a person so they are left alone.
I’ve read (long ago, can’t remember where) that lions and tigers that kill people are often predators hobbled by age or injury. Their normal prey gets beyond their ability, and they turn to humans as a second best option. The idea is that they then keep killing humans because that is about the best they can do.
Maybe. The Champawat Tiger had more confirmed kills than any lone human serial killer in history. After she was hunted down and killed, veterinarians that examined her found broken teeth and other oral issues that probably caused her pain and forced her to go to the ‘long pig buffet’ for all her meals because people were the easiest target after she got good at hunting them. She was probably in a really bad mood most of the time and got desperate to survive. That certainly doesn’t excuse hunting down and killing over 430 innocent people including children but hey, what is a hungry tigress with dental issues to do?
He knew what he was doing and all the above about their behavior. I remember in one episode he was giving a talk to some American military guys who were training in or around swampy environments. He said essentially the same thing about different temperments and risks fom the differnt types of crocodilians found in the area.
Also you’ll note how careful he was with keeping people away and roping the jaws in a very specific manner.
What I’ve read is that sharks mistake swimming humans for injured fish and surfers for floating seals, so when they take a bite of human, often it’s not what they were expecting, and that surprises them enough to make them to let go. That may not quite be the same as “tastes bad”.
I’ve heard the best thing to do in a shark attack is punch it in the snout. Really. I don’t know if I would have the presence of mind to do that though. I can see myself just flailing and screaming.
I’ve seen well-documented accounts of that occurring with human-eating tigers who developed a taste* for humans based on partially incapacitating injuries that inhibited their attempts to hunt normal prey.
My take on hunting down “man-eaters” of whatever species is that it’s typically based on a desire for revenge/reassurance of the local population, not on a realistic fear that a random bear/crocodile attack presages a foray into serial killing.
*there was a Charles Addams cartoon showing the leader of an African cannibal tribe telling a medical missionary (with relish) “Why yes, doctor, we’ve developed a taste for Western medicine.”