{"id":138715,"date":"2025-09-12T22:21:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T22:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/138715\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T22:21:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T22:21:13","slug":"australia-tears-into-us-influencer-mike-holston-over-crocodile-grabbing-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/138715\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia tears into US influencer Mike Holston over crocodile-grabbing videos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Australian authorities are investigating an American influencer who filmed himself wrestling wild crocodiles in Queensland, condemning the \u201cextremely dangerous and illegal\u201d activity.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In a series of videos on his Instagram, bare-chested Mike Holston, who goes by \u201ctherealtarzann\u201d online, tussles with saltwater and freshwater crocodiles.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In one post, he dives into the water, emerging holding the crocodile by its throat with blood streaming from his elbow.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cHe got a hold of me, but I got a hold of him,\u201d Holston says.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In another, Holston jumps off a boat and into a bushy waterway in pursuit of a crocodile, which he then wrestles.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Holston has said the videos, which have amassed millions of views, were for \u201ceducational purposes\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian authorities are investigating an American influencer who filmed himself wrestling wild crocodiles in Queensland, condemning the \u201cextremely&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[86462,64,63,95153,81833,49865,95152,1202,86460,701,43397,95154,128,44237,95156,95155,338,64658],"class_list":["post-138715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-american-influencer","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bob-irwin","tag-croc-country","tag-david-crisafulli","tag-freshwater-crocodiles","tag-instagram","tag-mike-holston","tag-queensland","tag-saltwater-crocodile","tag-saltwater-crocodiles","tag-science","tag-steve-irwin","tag-us-influencer","tag-wild-crocodiles","tag-wildlife","tag-wombat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}