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A drone photographer captured heart-pounding footage of the moment a crocodile got within metres of a dog after stalking it on the beach.
Jerry Ahmat, 26, filmed the aerial shot, showing a five-metre-long crocodile at Seisia Wharf in Queensland, Australia, earlier this month.
As the concealed croc sat motionless in the water, it seemed to be surveying a dog sniffing nearby the shore.
After a few moments, the crocodile crawled across the sand before getting within striking distance of the unsuspecting dog.
Jerry kept filming the encounter while his family called the dog back away from the shore – and the killer crocodile.
Eventually, the dog left the area and escaped unharmed.
The crocodile appeared to be floating leisurely before it entered predator mode (Picture: Jam Press Vid/Jerry Ahmat)
The dog eventually ran away from the shoreline, unaware of the danger it was in (Picture: Jam Press Vid/Jerry Ahmat)
Jerry told What’s the Jam: ‘I was waiting for a bad ending. I love dogs and have dogs of my own, and if it was my dog, I would have probably done the same thing.’
Jerry had been filming the crocodile floating in the water before it suddenly entered ‘predator mode’, explaning: ‘My family and I decided to take our son for a car ride down to the Seisia Wharf when we happened to come across the croc.
‘I decided to fly my drone just to get a few pictures. At first it was just casually swimming until we saw that the croc turned the other way, it probably smelled something and swam fast to the other side of the wharf just behind the Seisia Seaswift depot.
The most dangerous animal attacks in 2023
In early November 2023, an Australian farmer was attacked by a 3.2-metre-long crocodile, and fought back by biting its eyelid.
In June last year, the remains of a Russian tourist who was killed by a shark in Egypt were recovered after the shark was caught and cut open.
In August 2023, a Costa Rican footballer was killed after a crocodile attacked him as he swam in a local river.
And in a terrifying instance, more than 100 people were killed when a boat capsized in crocodile-infested waters in Nigeria.
‘My partner told me to follow it just in case there were people or maybe a child that was near the water. Instead it was the dog, so I told my partner we’ll drive to other side so we can try and save the dog.
‘As we got there, I decided to keep the drone on the croc again for educational purposes and croc awareness especially up here the NPA [North Peninsula Area].’
Jerry said he tried to scare the crocodile and dog away with his drone, but both seemed unfazed.
The crocodile got dangerously close to the unsuspecting dog (Picture: Jam Press Vid/Jerry Ahmat)
The dog made a lucky escape from the crocodile (Picture: Jam Press Vid/Jerry Ahmat)
He added: ‘My partner tried to chase the dog away from the waters but didn’t want to push her closer to the water’s edge.
‘Instead we called out to it but you could see that the dog was scared of us, especially us being strangers. Eventually the dog came up by herself and took off.’
An estimated 100,000 crocodiles live in Australia’s northern territory and in Queensland – where the sound of a low flying helicopter triggered a massive crocodile orgy last year.
The erotic scenes took place at the Koorana Crocodile Farm in Central Queensland, which often sees low-flying Chinook helicopters fly overhead.
But somewhere along the line the wires got crossed, and the crocodiles now seem to associate the sound of the helicopter blades with mating season.
Although the exact reason for the helicopters’ aphrodisiac quality is still not fully understood, experts have theorised that the sound of the blades may sound like thunderstorms to the crocodiles.
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