WORLD'S BIGGEST CROCODILE?

LINK TO AFRICAN HUNTER MAGAZINE
www.africanhunteronline.com
Hey guys Bill Here… If you are like me you’ve probably seen some pictures of big crocodiles before… but check this out.
This was sent to me by Billschannel viewer Gluck Pech from Germany!
Gluck says this picture was shot in Africa and what he wants to know is… is it real or is it fake? and if this is the biggest crocodile in the world.
I did some looking around, and the picture can be found all over the internet And many of them claim it is the biggest crocodile in the world. but what’s the real story here?
At snopes dot com they claim the picture is authentic. They claim it is a very big Nile Crocodile that was killed in Zimbabwe, Africa. It was shot by a man named Steve Curle who assists Zimbabwe’s National Parks with problem animals. This crocodile was killing too many cows that belonged to a local community.
Oh man, I can already hear some of you guys out there, wondering why they would kill this big beautiful croc for just eating cows… but the thing you have to understand is that in small communities all over Africa, people don’t have the option of putting their money in the bank - because there are no banks. So where they put their money is in their cattle - like cows. So when a crocodile starts eating those cows, well.. It’s a really big deal.
Snopes claimed it got it’s information about the croc from an “unknown publication.” This was odd for Snopes to rely on sketchy information like that. So, I headed into the remote corners of the internet to find this “unknown publication.”
It took some doing, but I finally found the unknown publication, and it’s called African Hunter Magazine.
One of the editors of the magazine is a guy named Anthony Williams. Mr. Williams told me via email where the original picture came from and how it got out onto the internet.
"I also publish a fishing magazine and was visiting a tackle shop when I saw the picture propped up on the back counter."
According to Mr. Williams, the man who shot the crocodile is Steve Curl, picture was taken by the man who shot the crocodile, and left in the shop for locals to check out. This man’s name, according to Williams, is Steve Curle, the same man mentioned on Snopes.
I had not met Steve at that stage so I phoned him and arranged and interview for an article

Now, according to Mr Williams what happened next was he wrote and article about Steve Curle and published it in African Hunter Magazine.
I did not put the picture on the net, but published it in our magazine,,,, Since then, I have seen it many times on the net, and with many different (rubbish) stories attached to it.
OK so, let’s do a quick review on the picture.
Both Snopes and Hoax or fact claim it is authentic.
Anthony Williams found the original picture in a tackle shop.
And just now Steve Kurl himself has verified he took the picture .
Now, as to size — that is a whole different issue. Could this really be the biggest crocodile in the world as many have claimed?
Not according to Anthony Williams at African Hunter Magazine.
If you look at the photograph, you will notice an orange cigarette butt laying on the floor a few inches below and back from the croc’s left foot. Being Zimbabwe, our cigarettes are all pretty standard between 20-30mm, so using an average of 25mm, we “measured” the croc with it. Our estimate was somewhere between 15 and 16 feet
Ok, so if we accept African Hunter Magazine’s clever measurement tool and divide that with Steve Curle’s estimate of 18 Feet, I think we could safely say the crocodile is under 20 ft.
That would place it well under the reigning “officially measured” Philippine Crocodile named Lolong which was confirmed to be 20.3 feet.
Just want to thank Gluck Pesh for sending me this amazing photo and hey, if you want to read the full article from African Hunter Magazine, I put a link right at the top of the description box below.
See you next time