When you take a day to visit a zoo, you expect to have a good time. For one tourist in the Philippines, however, things turned bad very quickly.
It happened on April 28 when a tourist was visiting Kabug Mangrove Park and Wetlands Zoo in Zamboanga Sibugay, Philippines. They wanted to get a closer look at the animals apparently, so they jumped the protective barrier and went into the enclosure.
According to reports, the 29-year-old spotted what he thought was a statue of a crocodile. Wanting to get a better look, he jumped over a fence, waded through the water and took out his phone to grab a selfie. It was then that he realized his mistake.
As the crowd of tourists was watching the man heading for the crocodile, they were shouting for him to get out. As soon as the crocodile saw an opportunity, however, it jumped and snapped his jaw on the tourist’s arm.
The 15-foot-long crocodile named Laylay wasn’t content to just chew on the man’s arm for a while. The entire ordeal from that point forward was captured on video.
According to Joel Sajolga, police staff Sgt. with the municipal police: “The tourist was walking around the area, then he saw the crocodile, which he thought was just a plastic fixture.
“He climbed the fence and entered the enclosure, and the crocodile attacked him.”
The croc bit the tourist’s arms and then took a bite out of his thigh. When he flipped the man over, he rotated the man like a toy in a maneuver that is known as a ‘death roll’.
It is explained further by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. They say: “Contrary to popular belief, crocodiles can’t chew, so they use a powerful bite coupled with a full-bodied twisting motion – a death roll – to disable, kill, and dismember prey into smaller pieces.
“The lethal movement is characteristic of both alligators and crocodiles and has been featured in numerous movies and nature documentaries.”
According to reports, the tourist was in the enclosure for 30 minutes and continued to get closer to Laylay before a handler for the zoo showed up. They eventually hit the crocodile over the head using a piece of cement and it let loose its grip.
Despite being in the grip of a crocodile for 1/2 hour, he lived to tell the story. He was taken off to the hospital and received more than 50 stitches. Honestly, I’m surprised he didn’t get more.
The Police Sgt. commented on this, saying: “This kind of behavior is very dangerous. Nobody should ever enter an animal’s enclosure at the zoo.
“He put other people’s lives at risk and he is very lucky to have survived.”
