I understand where you're coming from regarding 'motivation' in reference to the behaviour you described for the big American croc. I've seen that level of 'aggro' in big crocs before and I can definitely say that Rex is not one of those. However, I also think that there's only so high a huge saltie can jump, regardless of the level of aggro, just through physical limitations and that's where I was coming from. Rex is a slug on land, but he does alright in the water - not overly athletic but not overly lame. It probably doesn't help that the entire video is slowed down to close to quarter speed and that I edited it with many misses in a row to dramatize when he finally does get the chicken, for both of these add to the feeling that he's lazier than he is. I referred to the keepers 'training' him to jump because up until a few months ago he was being fed on land, at the water's edge, and since then they've been teaching him to jump for his food from the water, with the keepers dangling the food from a specially built 'pulpit' above. And with that I will now drop the topic. Thank you for your comments on the video. I'm a camera buff, too.

A little over a year ago I was in the Northern Territory and caught up with a crocodile biologist friend/acquaintance who does a lot of consultancy work for films and documentaries. Any movies you've seen in recent years involving big salties probably had his hand in it. He showed us one of his favourite crocs for film work - a big saltie in one of the croc farms - and it was clear why he loved to use it. It had the same level of 'aggro' you described for the American croc, flying out of the water and running to the fence on the mere promise of a chicken. I shot a video of it grabbing at chickens thrown to it but haven't had time to sort out any of the video from that trip, which included both wild and captive croc footage. Here's a still of it, though, which I think captures its explosive nature. It was around 4.5m long.

It's the sort of croc most people would be uncomfortable to feed from the water's edge, like this (this shot was taken at Crocosaurus Cove, where they have quite a few big crocodiles on display).


While on the subject of big crocs, though, check out this wild one.

It's a shame he was tucked up under the mangroves in the mud, trying to escape the heat, because I couldn't get a clear shot. We got close enough to get an idea of his size, though. I estimated him to be at least 5m and this was confirmed by the friend I mentioned earlier, who is not one to exaggerate size and has seen the very same crocodile on another occasion, in the water near his boat. He put its size at 5.5m (for reference, Sobek was 5.4). He had one of those big crocodile heads, so broad it was approaching alligator proportions.

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