Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Nature of Australia – Land of Flood and Fire (1988)

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A caring mother education content clip 2

Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

A female freshwater crocodile returns to the riverbank where she’d laid her eggs. Now she’s drawn back by the sounds of her young trying to escape from their eggs. She’ll provide protection for each of them as they make their way into the waterway.

Curator’s notes

by Janet Bell

Such intimate shooting of this maternal scene is simply breathtaking. When the mother takes her tiny offspring in her huge jaw to carry the baby to the water, it’s an extraordinary moment because the freshwater crocodile is capable of taking a human limb with those same jaws. Dione Gilmour recalls that she would pull firmly on the crocodile’s tail as soon as the camera operator was in place, so that the shot could capture a crocodile moving straight towards the camera.