Guy Whittall recently had the surprise of his life after he got out of bed to eat breakfast and heard a housekeeper scream from his room at the Humani Ranch in Zimbabwe one morning. The 40-year-old, who is also the director of the ranch, had managed to sleep the entire night without noticing there was a crocodile under his bed.
“The really disconcerting thing about the whole episode is the fact that I was sitting on the edge of the bed that morning, bare foot and just centimeters away from the croc,” Whittall said, according to New Zimbabwe. He added that the crocodile, which he estimated weighed 300 pounds, likely came from the nearby Turgwe River, which is less than two miles away from the lodge.
"Crocodiles are experts at hiding, that's why they have survived on Earth for so long and why they are the ultimate killers in water,” said Whittall. "They know how to keep quiet and go unnoticed, it's in their nature. They often wander about the bush especially when it's cold and raining. I think he liked it under the bed because it was warm."
He was forced to call in some of his co-workers who helped remove the crocodile from its new lair and release him back into Humani's Chigwidi dam. "Of course he resisted being roped and hauled out from under the bed, that's only natural,” Whittall explained. "Catching and securing a croc of any size on land though is a fairly straight forward affair and we are experienced in that. The only real danger is getting bitten because it can't drown you.”
"The most important thing is to get its snout roped and secured and then it's just a matter of restraining it and covering its eyes, to calm it down. Bigger crocs require more manpower obviously though. When roped they thrash around frantically and are extremely powerful,” he said. “I just remember thinking ‘goodness gracious, that's one for the books.’ I'm pretty sure everyone in Humani checks under their bed before going to sleep now anyway."
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