Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1919 — Tricks Found Necessary in Getting the Ugly Crocodile to Pose for His Photograph [ARTICLE]

Tricks Found Necessary in Getting the Ugly Crocodile to Pose for His Photograph

It is a habit of crocodiles to conceal themselves in burrows in the banks of rivers, which makes it a real task for the photographer whose problem is to rout them out of their holes and get them into view of the camera. In the American Museum Journal A. W. Dimock gives an amusing description of the methods he used when confronted with the task of taking pictures of crocodiles in Florida. It was rehlly exciting, says Mr. Dimock, after locating the mouth of a crocodile’s cave, to hang the noosed end of a rope in front of it and stand on the bank above waiting for a “bite," while my boatman busied himself thrusting a harpoon pole into the earth from ten to twenty feet behind me; In a few moments out would rush the crocodile; then there would be excitement at my end of the line. The big reptile always struggled and foughil; he clutched at the line and rolled over and over; he swam out into the stream and he sulked in its depths, but the noose was tightly drawn and never allowed to slip, and the end found the creature facing the camera on the bank. It was a matter of ethics that the crocodile should be freed when he had posed for his photograph, and removing the lasso called for much agility on the part of the volunteer.