U.S. influencer under investigation in Australia over controversial crocodile videos
Australian authorities said Thursday that they were investigating online videos by an American influencer who show him the capture and restraint of wild crocodiles in the state of Queensland.
“These actions are extremely dangerous and illegal, and we actively explore strong compliance measures, including fines to dissuade any person from this type of behavior,” said the Queensland environment department in a statement.
Mike Holston, also known as Real Tarzann, has published two videos in recent days to his 15 million followers on Instagram, one in which he seems to fight a crocodile and finds himself in the lead.
In the first video, Holston enters the shallow waters of a boat and runs towards what he says is a crocodile of fresh water before jumping on it and fighting with it. The blood is visible on his left arm as he catches the neck of the crocodile, which can be heard.
“This is what dreams are made of,” said Holston in the video while holding the reptile, admitting that he wanted to come to Australia from his young age to see crocodiles closely.
Since it was published on September 5, the video has collected more than a million likes and has been viewed more than 33 million times.
In the second video, Holston is seen in marshes during hunting after what he says is a crocodile of juvenile salt water. He catches the reptile quite easily, who, according to Queensland officials, was “completely unusual”, citing crocodile experts.
“In normal conditions, such an animal twisted and struggled wildly, seeking to escape,” they said.
Both animals can be seen in the videos, which seem to have been filmed in Lockhart River in the York Cape Peninsula.
Holston did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Thursday.
In a comment on the video of the salt water crocodile, he said that he had encouraged anyone to try to recreate what he was doing, adding that the animal was “released after a few close looks and photos were taken”.
However, everyone does not buy this explanation.
The conservationist Bob Irwin, father of the late Steve Irwin, the famous “crocodile hunter” of Australia, called for greater penalties for publications on social networks such as Holston, which, according to him, “can have disastrous consequences for people and fauna”.
“People visiting our country must respect our fauna, or they must be expelled,” Iwin said in a statement that appeared in the Australian media.
Crocodiles of salt water and fresh water can vary from about six to 13 feet long, with male salted waaters weighing up to 660 pounds and sweet male women weighing up to 132 pounds, according to the Queensland Environment Department.
The maximum penalty to interfere with a crocodile is a fine of approximately 37,500 Australian dollars ($ 25,000).
Holston is not the first American influencer to have a race with the Australian authorities on the content of the fauna. In March, an auto-written “outdoor enthusiast” left the country after being widely criticized for filming a baby Wombat of his distraught mother, including by the Australian Prime Minister.
