Australian Army use crocodiles in Combat
The Defence Science Technology Organisation (DSTO), today released details of a world first where Australian salt-water crocodiles have been trained to seek out and attack enemy combatants in tropical theatres of conflict.
The $7 million project has been a 5 year collaboration between the DSTO behavioural sciences unit in South Australia, and the Army School of Tropical Warfare in Canungra, Queensland.
Dr David Johnson from DSTO said today: “The use of animals in warfare goes back many centuries.
“Elephants, pigeons, dogs and even dolphins have all been used with varying degrees of success.
“What we’ve achieved with the army is applied and modified the training doctrine for military working dogs to the Australian salt-water crocodile.
“Like dogs and many other animals, crocodiles respond to stimuli and will learn to repeat behaviours that give rewards.
“In this case we have been training crocodiles to seek out and attack the enemy.”
“Since the training program began in late 2004, we have trained a total of 19 crocodiles ranging in size from 3.2 to 5 metres.”
“These animals are now held in reserve in three locations in northern Australia.”
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One Comment on Australian Army use crocodiles in Combat
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NewSunSEO on
Wed, 2nd Apr 2008 6:44 am
Being that it is April Fools, I think I would of heard of something like this before since it is said to be around since 2004. I will go research this topic a little more. It is pretty cool if it is real though.
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