PREVIEW

This is the moment a zookeeper sustains a head injury after conducting dental surgery on a crocodile. A team of keepers set out to subdue and inspect Elvis, dubbed “Australia’s crankiest crocodile”, at the Australian Reptile Park in New South Wales. A vet gave the 15.5ft-long crocodile a muscle relaxant, enabling seven keepers to dive on the creature’s back to restrain him. A heavy wooden block, wrapped in rubber, was inserted between the crocodile’s jaws to allow vets to inspect an ingrowing tooth. But moments after the keepers jumped on Elvis’s back, the half-ton reptile lost its cool and started thrashing its head from left to right. The 5kg block flew out and hit operations manager Billy Collett in the head, leaving him with a nasty bruise. After a brief reset and additional muscle relaxant, keepers successfully restrained Elvis and were able to remove the problematic tooth. Collett said, “I had a pretty decent bump on my head after, but surely that’s the best-case scenario when you’re dealing with a half-ton croc!”.