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Crocodiles are fascinating primitive creatures and a joy to watch living in the natural wild environment....
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00:05Three dead crocodiles are found decomposing in a national park.
00:13A year later, the carcass count is more than 200.
00:19In one spot there was like just 15 carcasses.
00:23On a population level, this must be catastrophic.
00:27It's a race against time to hunt down the mystery killer.
00:35These things have been here for 240 million years.
00:39In two and a half years, we have almost wiped them out.
00:44What is killing one of the toughest animals on the planet?
00:48If they start dying, what are next?
00:51Then it's basically us.
01:10Kruger National Park, South Africa.
01:15One of the oldest and largest national parks in the world.
01:24A protected wilderness the size of New Jersey, Kruger is a sanctuary to more species than any other African game
01:33reserve.
01:35In May 2008, trails ranger Nicole Coetzee takes some tourists on a sightseeing trip.
01:42We just went out for a short afternoon walk along the river, downstream from the camp with the guests, trying
01:48to see good crocs.
01:51They're in Oliphant's Gorge, a remote wilderness area the locals call Crocodile Gorge.
01:57Dangerous, unless accompanied by a ranger.
02:00I find it the best trail, and I've seen them all.
02:04And for me personally, it's just a place that I absolutely love.
02:12We call the specific spot Jurassic Park because of the huge amounts of big crocs that you find on the
02:19sand bank there.
02:20So that was where we were heading.
02:27Got a croc here.
02:28See?
02:29I just saw this massive croc lying out on the sand bank.
02:33Just wait here.
02:41When I walked up to it, then I could see that there's no reaction that the thing was dead.
02:49There was no outward damage or as if it was injured.
02:53I thought maybe natural conditions or just old croc, and he's just crawled out and he's died there.
03:02However, this corpse is just the beginning.
03:06They find another.
03:14Now suddenly, there's a little bit of a warning or a little warning light going off it.
03:20You know, second croc in this sort of stretch, there might be something going on here.
03:28A third rotting crocodile leaves the ranger in no doubt.
03:34Something is wiping out one of Kruger's top predators.
03:40Four, six, we just have three dead crocs to report in the gorge.
03:44The news takes everyone by surprise.
03:52Nile crocodiles have existed for over 200 million years.
03:56Up to 20 feet long and weighing the same as a small car, they're virtually indestructible, attacking almost anything that
04:03crosses their paths.
04:08If these beasts are dying, something has gone catastrophically wrong.
04:19Park authorities immediately launch an investigation.
04:24They're worried that more crocs may have died.
04:30Ah, looks a big one.
04:35The team's worst fears are soon confirmed.
04:40Thirty more corpses are discovered along the river.
04:46Darnie Pienaar heads up the inquiry.
04:49In one spot there was like just 15 carcasses stacked up.
04:53Some of them obviously dead for a couple of weeks.
04:58We were very startled because crocodiles are not that sort of species that you expect to die in a hurry.
05:07Even more shocking is where the crocodiles have died.
05:13This untouched gorge is one of the largest crocodile breeding grounds in the world.
05:19Over 1,000 crocs live here.
05:23Sandbanks are the perfect place for cold-blooded crocs to bask in the sun and lay their eggs.
05:32Around the world, Nile crocodiles had been hunted close to extinction.
05:38However, this gorge is a crocodile paradise.
05:45It was impossible to comprehend that in this area of the park that is so far removed from human impact
05:55that the crocodiles could be suffering this terrible fate.
05:59This one is dead already here on the right, isn't it?
06:02Yeah, this one here is dead. That big one is still alive.
06:05If they start dying, what are next?
06:10Then it's basically us.
06:17Investigators must act fast to find out what's killing Kruger's crocodiles.
06:23They turn to a past event for clues.
06:27Just three years ago, 52 animals were found dead in the park.
06:35Lions, cheetah, zebra and white rhino were all victims in a mass die-off.
06:45They'd all been poisoned by blue-green algae.
06:50Traces of algae are found in most water bodies.
06:53But under the right conditions, it can rapidly multiply to produce large algal blooms.
07:02These blooms produce high levels of toxins that, if consumed, can be fatal.
07:10Could algae be poisoning crocodiles in the gorge?
07:17Danny Govinder, Kruger Park's disease ecologist, isn't convinced.
07:23One thing that put us off a little bit was that we had large amounts of crocodiles.
07:27We had a whole lot of species dying, but crocodiles were never featured.
07:32The animals that died were all species that drink from the surface of the water,
07:38exactly where algae rises to photosynthesize.
07:44Crocodiles, however, do not.
07:48Crocodiles are not consuming, they're not drinking a large amount of the watery habitat that they live in.
07:57How much? How much?
07:58How much? How much? How much?
07:59How much? How much?
07:59How much? How much?
08:00Not once did we find a dead croc.
08:02So, in my head, in any case, blue-green algae was not something that I was seriously worried about.
08:09With algae discounted, Danny Govinder and her team are scrambled to the gorge to carry out post-mortems.
08:16If a cause of death is not found fast, there will be little hope of saving the rest of Kruger's
08:22crocodiles.
08:24An external examination only deepens the mystery.
08:29There are no signs of injury, and the corpses are unusually fat.
08:37When we first cut open these crocodiles, we noticed this orange, really hard, really sort of almost rubbery, like shoe
08:46rubber, hard fat.
08:47When you opened further into the abdomen, the fat there was equally affected.
08:52The fat in the tail was equally affected.
08:54The fat between the organs was so affected that you couldn't move any organs freely.
09:00The evidence points to a disease called pansteotitis.
09:06More well-known in domestic cats, it's caused by eating too much rancid fat, combined with a lack of vitamin
09:13E.
09:15Harmful toxins are released into the body, hardening a victim's body fat.
09:20If afflicted, a croc's tail will turn rubbery.
09:24Where you've got a crocodile with pansteotitis, he really is unable to protect himself.
09:30He can't defend his territory anymore, he can't swim, he can't eat, he's dying of starvation.
09:34Everything in him feels incredibly painful and he can do nothing about it.
09:38It's a horrible state to be in.
09:40When we first saw that our crocodiles had pansteotitis, it was just really strange,
09:46because we could not understand why.
09:51Crocodiles are born survivors that have outlived the dinosaurs.
09:56They've evolved a formidable immune system to keep out common disease.
10:01It was quite unusual for us to think of this sort of disease happening at this scale in a national
10:07park in the wild.
10:09The mystery killer has been identified, but it's not the end of the investigation.
10:19A national task force is established to track down where the disease has come from.
10:27This is the first time pansteotitis has been seen in Kruger Park.
10:32But further upriver, the disease has killed before.
10:38Pansteotitis was only ever documented in wild crocodiles once,
10:42and that was just a couple of months before our incident, and that was at Loskop Dam.
10:46This small man-made dam sits over 300 miles outside the park,
10:52but it's home to many wild crocodiles.
10:56Pollution from a local mine, mixed with sewage, had killed hundreds of fish,
11:02providing a tempting meal for passing crocodiles.
11:10The crocodile just ate a large amount of this rancid fish fat,
11:15and that's how they then developed pansteotitis and died.
11:19Most of Loskop's crocodiles were wiped out.
11:26Investigators in Kruger have their first clue.
11:32Crocs get pansteotitis from feasting on dead fish.
11:37One of the first things we tried to do was establish if there was a fish kill
11:41that we might not have heard of.
11:48The team searched the gorge for any signs of dead fish.
11:53If they can find any evidence, it will be case closed.
11:57Fish killed in these sort of environments are quickly gone,
12:01but you might have little tell-tale signs.
12:04Birds would pull up the fish on land and eat them there,
12:08so you would see the bones and the carcasses and the scales,
12:11even for a while afterwards.
12:15But in a river full of predators,
12:18any dead fish may have already disappeared without trace.
12:22We got nothing.
12:25One would expect a fish die-off,
12:28and not finding it from the start
12:30kind of put us in a little bit of a predicament.
12:33Now we had to really investigate further.
12:35We had to find something that maybe was more subtle than that.
12:39that would be possible for visitors to the park.
12:50And the pressure is mounting for answers.
12:51The crows are continuing to die.
12:53Over 30 are dead and the pressure is mounting for answers.
13:00there are fears the deaths will affect the number of tourists coming to the park and the
13:05livelihoods of all who work there worse still losing one of its top predators could take
13:12Kruger Park down crocodiles help control the numbers of everything below them in the aquatic
13:23food chain if they disappear large numbers of catfish could rule the river preying on smaller
13:31fish and reducing the varieties of food available to fish-eating birds no crocs starts a domino effect
13:41that could cause an irreversible change the park's survival depends on investigators
13:52stamping out panstiotitis in the past crocodiles are only known to have got the disease from eating
14:00dead fish but with no evidence of a die-off the team must find a new suspect investigators in Kruger
14:11Park
14:12are tracking down the cause of a killer disease that has wiped out over 30 crocodiles when we heard
14:19there wasn't a fish die-off we immediately suspected some sort of pollution the Oliphant's River passes
14:29through many mining industrial and agricultural areas before flowing through Kruger Park and into
14:35Mozambique little regulation has made it one of South Africa's most polluted rivers could these pollutants
14:45have triggered panstiotitis Willem Engelbrecht lives in Whitbank 300 miles upstream from the crocodile carcasses
15:01it's home to South Africa's largest coal fields and power stations yeah you've got the smell you can see
15:07the dirty water the water is not even the color is not even good the foam is forming on top
15:11of the water in
15:12the river itself where the water is coming in that clearly shows you that there's something is wrong
15:17with the water coming in it should not foam it should not smell clean water doesn't foam doesn't smell
15:23with a rising human population dealing with sewage has also become a major problem this place supposed
15:30to be clear out of water for our students coming from the town at the moment the town is expanding
15:36quite
15:37a lot and this one is not even coping at all with the residents we've got at the moment this
15:41water is
15:42supposed to be crystal clean not smelling no foaming no hot particles in it and it's got a lot of
15:48it in
15:48it let me show you where it is going straight into the river you come over here you'll see this
15:53is that
15:53this depositing system look at the debris on the side you have a look in the side there a lot
15:58of the
15:59debris going out of there going straight through that portal into the river downstream this polluted
16:07water flows directly into Kruger Park you can't stop polluted water coming into the park you can't
16:15create more water so although we try to conserve this river as best as we can what we receive is
16:22actually it comes from outside the task force heads to the gorge confident they can identify the
16:30pollutants that are killing their crocs what we need to do is just take some water samples and take some
16:39sediment samples and get it analyzed by some of the labs in South Africa and then that would have an
16:47answer
16:49they collect samples of water algae silt and croc tissue to send away for analysis
17:01meanwhile Andrew Deacon the park's freshwater ecologist inspects the fish population any signs
17:09of ill health will quickly confirm if there's something toxic in the water there are many fish
17:15in the gorge making up the majority of a croc's diet although crocs are formidable hunters able to catch
17:24many types of prey in the steep-sided gorge large mammals are rarely seen at the water's edge
17:37Andrew's findings are unexpected I did my monitoring on fish and so on and they seem all all fine
17:45so that was really very strange to me most fish looked pretty good they looked quite normal they
17:53looked quite healthy healthy fish usually mean a healthy river to make sure samples of fish tissue
18:04are examined by fish pathologist David Huxermeyer most the fish I got livers from and kidneys and the
18:11spleens and and those indicated that there was something not right generally the picture I got was
18:20one of oxidative stress these fish were being exposed to some other oxidant in the water probably over a
18:27prolonged period of time there is something nasty in the water an unknown toxin is making the fish on
18:35well but they are not dying
18:45robust crocodiles are dying every day yet the sensitive fish remain alive
18:55the suspect toxin seems to be causing panstertitis only in the top predator whilst the team await the
19:04results from the lab as to which toxin is to blame investigators turn their attention to a new
19:10mystery why are the mortalities only happening now heavy industrial mining has been leaking waste into the
19:21river with little regulation for over a hundred years what have changed suddenly now and the only
19:28thing that I could have to think of each the fact that they put in this sluice gates into the
19:33muscle gear
19:34dam
19:39massangir dam just 20 miles downstream from the gorge in neighboring country Mozambique
19:50a wall over two miles long and as tall as the statue of liberty holds back enough water to fill
19:57a million
19:57Olympic sized swimming pools the dam has always been surrounded by controversy designed to supply clean
20:08water and power to Mozambicans Kruger Park officials say they were not consulted on its impact since the
20:17dam's been established conservationist on the Kruger side was saying this is a bad idea this is going to
20:23flood the gorge quite severely
20:25although the dam was partially completed in the 70s a 16 year civil war meant it was left abandoned until
20:33just months before the crocodile death and the installation of sluice gates raised water levels by over 65 feet
20:41drowning the good
20:44for Kruger the effects were devastating what we saw certainly was a was was quite disturbing massive
20:54depositing of salt in in the gorge fine fine horrible sticky mud it's kind of much that smells horrible and
21:03you walk into it you get stuck there you can't get out so our immediate suspicions was that the
21:09mass and gear dam back flooded into the Kruger Park the crocodile started dying there has to be a a
21:15a
21:16a significant link between the two events
21:21but how can these environmental changes be responsible for kick-starting a killer disease
21:31the results from samples sent away for analysis are back in
21:36in general the water and sediment samples that were analyzed showed us that though there were a large
21:43number of compounds detected none were above allowable limits
21:49investigators are right the river is polluted with over 1500 different toxins
21:59but surprisingly none are at high enough concentrations to kill crocodiles
22:06these results were certainly not what i wanted to hear because i was convinced that the people would come
22:11back to us and say it is this chemical or this heavy metal that's that's the culprit
22:22the results are a major setback for the investigation with no evidence of lethal levels of toxins in the water
22:32pollution and the mass and gear dam can no longer be suspects to make things worse more crocodiles are dying
22:40by the day
22:43over 50 crocs have now succumbed to the disease the numbers were just escalating
22:51every day there would be another couple of 10 a week and that was really concerning
22:59investigators must act quickly if they're to save any surviving crocodiles
23:06but all obvious lines of inquiry have dried up
23:16the focus shifts to containing the disease
23:21investigators have noticed some disturbing behavior that could explain why it's spreading so rapidly
23:27we saw a large crocodile feeding on a young crocodile that was affected
23:31so we knew that cannibalism was was definitely playing going on in the gorge
23:39crocs normally only eat each other when food is scarce or when overcrowded
23:44but the carcasses floating around in the river are just too tempting a meal
23:53they are feasting on their own bed
23:58full of affected fats this meal could cause those remaining healthy crocodiles to get panstiotitis too
24:07and it's not just the crocs that are at risk
24:13we saw a lot of lines patrolling the river and eating the carcasses and we were worried that they might
24:22get affected
24:27there is a danger that disease could spread across the park
24:35the task force launches into action
24:42they remove and destroy any carcass they can find
24:51what we hope by removing all this infected material from the system is that the mortalities would slow down and
24:58maybe even even stop
25:01but moving up to 500 pound crocs from an isolated gorge is no easy feat
25:1060 carcasses are cremated
25:13it's almost disrespectful somehow
25:16there's like 10 crocodiles on a pile being burned
25:18and you realize on a population level this must be catastrophic
25:39the team fear there may still be dead crocs lurking unseen
25:44they must tempt live crocs away from eating them
25:47we shot a few hippos in the system
25:50and the crocodiles then got attracted to those hippo carcasses and fed largely on hippos for the next few weeks
26:09the interventions
26:11have an instant effect
26:20the mortalities did slow down um significantly and and and and did stop and here by
26:26september october we didn't see any more
26:31you
26:38for the first time in five months
26:41the park can rest easy
26:43panstiotitis has disappeared
26:52but with over 170 crocs now dead
26:55there's no peace for the task force
26:58they need to find out where the disease has come from
27:01in case it comes back
27:05the team searches for those crocs still alive
27:08hoping for some new leads
27:10we decided to start catching crocodiles
27:12to tag them
27:14mark them
27:14put on some transmitters
27:16and to collect some samples
27:18the research will reveal
27:19where crocs go to feed
27:22there is now a new theory that crocodiles
27:24may be moving out of the gorge
27:26the trigger for the disease
27:28could be lying elsewhere
27:33the team need to get close to 500 pound reptiles
27:37with the strongest bite
27:38of any animal
27:42it's dangerous work
27:44worse still
27:45it has to happen at night
27:53investigators in kruger park
27:55are on a mission to capture crocodiles
27:57crocs are less cautious at night
28:00which means the team can get closer
28:03but that's if you can find them
28:05but that's if you can find them
28:06a crocodile is well adapted to the water
28:09when it's submerged
28:10only its eyes and snout
28:12are exposed
28:16people said you're crazy
28:18walking along the kruger park rivers
28:20at night
28:22people are going to get killed
28:33it can be quite scary you know
28:35it's it's it's one of those things that the crocodiles
28:37we're catching they're large crocs
28:39if if that crocodile decided that he was going to
28:41take your limb off he would
28:46take it
28:53big or small one snap from a crocodile
28:57could be lethal
29:03luckily for the team
29:04the muscles that open the jaws even in healthy crocs
29:07are very weak
29:12a roll of tape
29:13can easily keep
29:14the lethal mouth of a croc
29:16closed
29:18but some crocodiles
29:19aren't even putting up a fight
29:22some crocodiles were lethargic
29:24and listless
29:25they're not very keen to move
29:27they're very swollen around their tails
29:29around their abdomens
29:31they just didn't look like healthy crocodiles
29:35let's move it around
29:36that's it
29:42it's a disturbing find
29:45panstia titus
29:46hasn't disappeared
29:48from the park after all
29:50some crocs
29:51are living with the disease
29:56right one more okay that's it
29:58that's it
30:00but they will all die
30:01in the end
30:05that's it
30:06can be cured in domestic animals
30:09because you can give them continuous
30:11and regular injections
30:12in our situation it is impossible
30:14to catch a crocodile
30:16on a regular basis
30:18the team desperately need
30:21to find the cause before it's too late
30:24they attach radio transmitters
30:27and colored tags
30:28to all of the captured crocs
30:29to find out where they're going
30:31to feed
30:48a year on from the outbreak
30:50winter once again falls
30:52on kruger park
30:55panstia titus
30:56panstia titus has now killed
30:58179 of the gorgeous crocodiles
31:01but it's not over
31:03some devastating news
31:05rocks the park
31:12for the second year running
31:13a killer disease
31:15is wiping out one of kruger's
31:17top predators
31:19same week almost to the date
31:21as it happened the previous year
31:23we started seeing panstia titus again
31:27crocodiles are once again
31:29dying on mass in the gorge
31:31we knew this is not a
31:33a once off
31:34it's certainly a recurring thing
31:36that we're going to be stuck with
31:37for goodness knows how long
31:40we hoped we wouldn't have to see it again
31:43we didn't know how many of these outbreaks
31:45we could actually have this population survive
31:5226 more crocodiles have died
32:03just two months later
32:05there's a third large-scale death
32:07in the gorge
32:09but it's not crocs
32:13it's fish
32:17that was a rare occurrence
32:19in the sense that it was an observed
32:21fish mortality
32:23so nobody could really exclude
32:25that mortalities occurred from time to time
32:27that were not being recorded
32:31it's an astonishing find
32:34could this mean
32:35that panstia titus
32:37has been caused by dead fish
32:39after all
32:39just ones that had never been detected
32:42at the time of the first outbreak
32:45what was interesting to me
32:47was that
32:47it was virtually only
32:49african sharp-toothed catfish
32:51and it was very large ones
32:53and they were very very fat
32:55a post-mortem of these fish
32:58which provides a major breakthrough
33:00almost all of those fish
33:02had
33:05panstia titus lesions
33:06that we could confirm
33:08for the first time
33:10another species
33:11is found with panstia titus
33:14and it's the fish at the top
33:15of every crocs menu
33:18this lesions that we're seeing
33:20in the fish could potentially be something
33:22that can kill the fish
33:23if not affect their physiology
33:24that make them easier to catch
33:29the disease will be making swimming difficult
33:33these affected fish
33:35are an easy target for passing crocodiles
33:39it's a revelation
33:40that gives rise to a groundbreaking theory
33:44perhaps crocs can get panstia titus
33:47from eating live fish
33:49not just dead ones
33:51you don't need a large fish kill
33:53all you need is sick fish
33:55which the crocodiles would then target
33:57and that way get sick
33:59them themselves
34:02the source of rancid fats
34:04that give a croc panstia titus
34:06could have been swimming around
34:07in the river all along
34:11if so
34:12how are the catfish getting it?
34:16catfish
34:17catfish are actually
34:18the first in the food chain
34:20to get the condition
34:21so they must eat something
34:23or miss something from their diet
34:25that creates panstia titus in them
34:30catfish are primarily bottom feeders
34:32combing the river floor
34:33with sensitive whiskers
34:35in the hunt for small fish
34:36or detritus
34:40the team are convinced
34:41that the answer lies somewhere
34:43on the riverbed
34:47some previous cases of panstia titus
34:50in fish
34:51have been caused by pollutants
34:53but tests have already revealed
34:56that toxins in the gorge
34:57are at safe levels
35:00the problem with these tests
35:02it's worked on a single compound
35:05it might be a series of compounds
35:07all at fairly low
35:09seemingly benign levels
35:12that when you start mixing
35:13them together
35:14you all of a sudden
35:16get a toxic soup
35:18catfish might be consuming
35:20a mix of toxins from the riverbed
35:22causing them to get panstia titus
35:27the finger of blame is once again
35:30pointed at Massengir Dam
35:33the Massengir Dam
35:34the Massengir Dam
35:35probably was the trigger that set all of this off
35:39when the dam wall was actually raised
35:41and the gorge was flooded
35:42there was a zone of water
35:44that wasn't moving anymore
35:45so sediment was just dropping out
35:48clinging onto the sediment
35:49are hundreds of toxins pumped into the river
35:51from the industrial areas upstream
35:55all the deposited
35:56in the slow moving water of the gorge
35:59the investigation now needs to prove
36:01that the catfish are feeding on this sediment
36:04before being eaten themselves
36:06by crocodiles
36:08we needed to know what the fish were eating
36:12a number of fish are opened up
36:14and examined
36:16particular attention is paid to their stomach contents
36:21these catfish had been feeding
36:23on the surface of the clay deposits
36:26they were clay deposits
36:27within their stomachs and intestinal system
36:31the fish are absorbing
36:33a toxic substance
36:35which is initiating the panstia titus
36:39it's the evidence the team
36:41have been waiting over a year to find
36:52the tree
36:53the trigger of panstia titus
36:55is a mixture of toxins lurking
36:57at the bottom of the gorge
37:04the team piece together all the evidence
37:07to reveal a complex chain of events
37:10that is killing Kruger's crocodiles
37:14the raising of Massengir Dam
37:17has changed the flow of water in the gorge
37:20resulting in sediments mixed with toxins
37:23to be dumped on the riverbed
37:26hungry catfish consume enough toxins
37:29to get panstia titus
37:32living with this disease
37:34they become an easy target for passing crocodiles
37:39feasting on sick fish
37:40the crocs then get the killer disease
37:50to be found
37:51but one question remains unanswered
37:54why have crocodiles died
37:56at the same time each year
37:58at the onset of winter
38:01Danny Govinder believes
38:03these formidable apex predators
38:05are simply stressed
38:07and that winter's cold temperatures
38:10are just too much for them to handle
38:12everyone believes
38:14everyone believes that crocodiles really face no stress
38:15but their entire existence is a stressful one
38:22fighting, hunger and overcrowding
38:24are often to blame
38:26but there are two times of year
38:28when a croc is particularly stressed
38:32one is in the spring
38:33when they start to breed
38:36the other is the start of winter
38:41crocodiles are highly sensitive
38:42to temperature change
38:45crocodiles bask in the sun
38:46for at least two hours a day
38:48to control their body temperature
38:50but once again
38:52it's the raising of Massengir Dam
38:54which may have pushed these crocs
39:02over the edge
39:02crocodiles in Kruger Park
39:04are suffering from stress
39:06the flooding caused by a nearby dam
39:08has reduced the number of areas
39:10in which crocs can bask in the sun
39:12there's plenty of sun available
39:14this is Africa
39:15but in the gorge environment
39:17with inundation and flooding
39:20of a large number of those sandbanks
39:22the amount of sandbanks available
39:23for thermoregulation is reduced
39:25with fewer sandbanks to Baskon
39:28crocs shut themselves down
39:30to conserve precious energy
39:34fat supplies are used to generate heat
39:36but not when they've turned rubbery
39:41panstiotitis
39:42massengir dam
39:43and a drop in temperature
39:45are a killer combination
39:48they've got active inflammation
39:50in their body and they can kind of cope
39:52with it they're coping in the summer season
39:54but come the winter where there's this added
39:56stress of temperature
39:57they really can't manage anymore
40:00they can't cope with it
40:00no
40:02no
40:02no
40:03no
40:11no
40:13no
40:15no
40:16no
40:28Investigators have unraveled the mystery of Kruger's dying crocs, but there is little
40:35they can do to prevent more deaths.
40:39There's no feasible way to cure them.
40:44As sad and depressing as it may sound, I do not think the crocodiles in this gorge have
40:49got much of a future.
40:52We're going to lose, I think, most of the crocodiles from this system.
40:58We're going to just see the population spiraling downward slowly over the next couple of decades.
41:06Their only hope lies with the government, who are planning major changes in how South
41:11Africa's rivers are managed.
41:13Scientific studies reveal that less pollution and fewer dams will ease many environmental
41:19problems.
41:20But if the rate of human population and economic development stays the same, South Africa will
41:26run out of clean fresh water.
41:28The death of over 200 crocs is a stark wake-up call.
41:37And it's not just crocs that are at risk.
41:42We are seriously concerned about the villages here because, I mean, the obvious thing about
41:46a crocodile dying is that it's a top predator dying.
41:49The other top predator in the system is humans.
41:55They are really reliant on the fish protein here.
41:58They eat the entire fish.
41:59They are utilizing all parts of it.
42:02So parts that could potentially accumulate toxin as well.
42:05So very similar to the crocodiles.
42:07You're not going to find a person really sick, but you're going to get more long-term effects.
42:12Some headaches or belly pain or some sort of liver pain or enlargements.
42:17Certain problems with ladies falling pregnant or cancer incidents.
42:21So what's happening now, we might only see in this population in five or ten years' time,
42:25and then it's going to be very hard to ascribe it to what happened when the crocodiles died.
42:32For the park's authorities, their work must continue.
42:42Two years on from the first outbreak, the team returned to the gorge.
42:51Once again, they are faced with death.
43:06This is what we've been seeing the last couple of years.
43:09Onset of winter, crocodile starts dying.
43:22To reduce the suffering, rangers are often forced to take drastic action.
43:36There's no way that this crop was going to survive.
43:39We would have maybe lasted another week or two and died a slow, painful death.
43:46You get to a stage where you almost do not want to come back here,
43:49because you know what you're going to see is going to be upsetting.
43:53But unfortunately, that's not a luxury we have.
43:56We have to continue doing this work.
44:02The future of Kruger's Crocs lies in the hands of all who use South Africa's water.
44:10We have damaged and destroyed and changed our rivers so much that even something that has been designed to survive
44:17this is dying.
44:20These things have been here for 240 million years and we have, in two and a half years, almost wiped
44:30them out in this river system.
44:32You know, it saddens me. It absolutely saddens me to see.
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