Nature can be a beautiful place, and nature can be a terrifying place.
This video is one of those instances where it’s not so pretty. Though one creature was able to have a filling dinner, another wild animal was unfortunately what was being served for the meal. And it was being served alive, which makes it 100 times worse.
I hate to speculate, but this might be the world’s largest crocodile. It absolutely dwarfed the herd of gazelles that were running through the water. They should have looked for an alternate route across the river, because deciding to cross at that point ended up costing one of the gazelles its life.
The group ran down the bank and into the water, and as soon as they did, a crocodile could be seen honing in on the group. With that many gazelles sloshing through the water, the croc didn’t have to be selective, and it certainly didn’t have to be accurate in its attack.
That’s why the crocodile, which can swim at a speed of over 20 miles per hour in the water, had no problem catching up to the struggling gazelles. Once it got close enough, the large scaly creature simply chose one from the pack and went to work.
And when I say “went to work,” the croc didn’t waste any time. It mercilessly snapped its jaws down on one of the gazelles, and didn’t even bother to put it out of its misery. A crocodile can bite down with 3,700 pounds per square inch of force, so it easily could have turned the lights out on the gazelle.
Instead, it took a couple of soft bites to get it bunched together (as horrific as that sounds) and then swallowed the whole thing while it was still alive. It’s honestly a pretty tough video to watch, though if you are a fan of the gnarliest parts of nature, it showcases the sheer strength of a crocodile:
That is not the way to go out.
YouTube commenters were blown away by the footage, and left a flurry of replies to the clip that could most accurately be described as in disbelief:
“Absolutely frightening how quickly that giant croc inhaled that gazelle. Crocodiles are terrifying.”
“Damn the gazelle was still kicking just before it got swallowed. Brutal death.”
“As many crocodile videos I have watched, I have never seen one swallow a live animal whole, and I have never seen a video of one so big either.”
“Massive? You weren’t kidding, that’s a dinosaur.”
“I had always thought that crocodiles drown their prey before eating but I guess it just depends how hungry they are.”
