Cassius was a crocodile born in 1904 who lived 120 years at Marineland near Cairns. George Craig fed him daily for 37 years, and a baby croc named Xena lived on his head for 14 years. When George went into aged care, Cassius stopped eating and died peacefully.
Chapters
Okay, that's Cassius. That's Cassius, the friendly crocodile. Do you believe me that he's friendly? You believe me? Yeah, I hope you do, because he lived for 120 years because he was so friendly. And if you look at the tip of his nose— since you're the only one here, I should just talk. What's your name? Sorry, Rocky? That's a— Locky. Locky. I like that name. Sir Lachlan the First. Um, Locky, so have a look here. Cassius, do you see something wrong with the front of Cassius's face? Cassius was so friendly that he was up in the Northern Territory. He was born in 1904, and in the 1980s— '70s, no, '80s— he was chasing boats because he didn't like the sound of their motors, and he would bite the rotors, and it chopped off a front part of his nose. And he evidently, he did it so much that the farmers decided to go and catch Cassius, and they caught him. He was already over 5 meters long then, and and they moved him. And this is them moving Cassius. Cassius, he hated the engine noise, I told you that. And he lost part of his nose thanks to one of those engine noises. And they captured him and they moved him to this place called Marineland, which is over near Cairns. It's on a little island called Green Island. There's a picture of it there, or you can look at it really close if you want. It's right there. Yes. And that's where he lived until last week, because Cassius passed away last week. While Cassius was living there, this is the man that looked after him. This is George Craig. And George was old when Cassius arrived, and he lived— he's still alive. George is 94. And that's George there. He's there with a prize for the longest crocodile in the world, I think, in, in captivity. And then over there, he's showing you that he's also lost part of his tail, which means he'd be even longer if they measured the full nose and the full tail. He's probably like almost 6 meters. I don't know, he's, he's long. He's, he's a big, big crocodile. Did you know he's actually as long as a giraffe is tall? That's how big he is. He's really long. I think if you paced it off, he probably wouldn't fit between that door and that door. Probably pretty close. He was huge. And so Cassius's best mate was George, and George came every day and fed him and would give him a little bit of fish or a little bit of chicken, and then once a week he'd give him a whole chicken. A whole fish, because crocodiles don't actually eat that much. And if you feed them too much, it's not good for them. So Craig looked after Cassius for all those years, 37 years. And then during those 37 years, a baby croc— you can't let baby crocs be near the male crocs because they're mean to them. They'll do— they're tiny and they'll just chomp them, just eat them up like a little snack. And so this baby croc was born in the next booth over, the next place over, and he climbed— or she climbed through the fence because they gathered all the eggs but they missed one. And she climbed through the fence, and when the keepers came in one morning, she was sitting on Cassius's head. And Cassius was swimming around so proud to have little Xena, the warrior princess, on his head. And Xena lived with him for 14 years. Cassius raised Xena as his own daughter. And he looked after her until, like most teenagers, especially teenage daughters, they get a bit anxious and crazy, and she started telling her dad, "I'm the boss!" And she went— you know how crocodiles say they're the boss? They smack their head into the head of the other crocodile. And the keepers would look in and they'd say, "Zena's picking on Cassius again." Zena was like this long, and Cassius is 5 meters long, and poor Cassius would go, "Ow, that hurts! Don't hurt me!" And he was so friendly, he wouldn't fight back. And so they had to take Zena out and move her into another enclosure so that Cassius, the friendly crocodile, could continue his life. Well, George got old, and George went into an aged care home. He had to leave the island, and he went and he started looking after— being looked after instead of looking after. And he stopped feeding Cassius. Other people tried to feed Cassius. But Cassius wouldn't take food from other people. And Cassius— George went in about a month ago, he went into care, and last week Cassius had his last breath. And they came in one morning and he had just decided he'd had enough and he went to sleep. And so they were friends for life, friends for life. And George, now there he is blowing out his 93rd— I think that's 3, is there 4 candles or 3 candles there with the 9? But he's now 94. So that's the story about Cassius the friendly crocodile. And sometimes— today we're going to learn about two brothers who weren't always friendly to each other. Sometimes people that you think, or even animals that you think aren't friendly, they can be friendly if you give them a second chance. Thank you for coming and listening to the story, and have a good day.
