Could this be the latest Bristol croc sighting?
A Bristol man has snapped photos and video of what could potentially be the latest sighting of the famous Bristol crocodile. Jimmy Edge was on his lunch break with his colleague before Christmas when he spotted what looked like the famed creature in the River Avon near the St Phillip’s footbridge.
Jimmy, 42, told BristolLive: “Me and my colleague Marcus were going to get a breakfast sandwich and were in a bit of a rush to get to the shop and back in time for a meeting. And I thought ‘what the hell is that in the water’?
“I took a few photos and a video – and I’ve seen crocodiles in real life before – and from where I was standing it looked exactly like a crocodile, with the head and nose sort of sticking up out of the water.
“And it wasn’t far from where the sculpture is, just around the corner. My colleague agreed that it looked like a crocodile too. But we couldn’t get any closer as we were in such a rush to get our sandwich and get back in time. We were already running a little bit late.
“I was trying to zoom in and get as close as possible. Obviously, I can’t say it was definitely a crocodile. I didn’t see it swishing it’s tail or doing anything like taking a deer from the water’s edge, but it looked remarkably like a crocodile, so I thought that was quite a fun concept.”
Jimmy is no stranger to crocodiles and alligators. He’s seen them up close during trips to places like Costa Rica and Australia over the years and, while he admits he’s “no David Attenborough”, he does describe himself as having a ‘keen eye’.
Jimmy tried to get closer to get a better look at the possible croc, but admitted he’s “no David Attenborough”(Image: Jimmy Edge)
“I’ve surfed in places where there’s a real chance a crocodile could come out to take you, so always being on the lookout I feel I’ve got a keen eye for a crocodile,” he said.
Jimmy also admitted that, while having heard rumblings of the famous Bristol crocodile, he wasn’t entirely familiar with how the tale came to be. “I don’t want to ruin the story by saying that it was probably just a floating bit of debris, but I also don’t want to say it is definitely a crocodile and scare people away from the water in Bristol,” he added.
“I have showed a few people at work the video and they said ‘oh my god there definitely is a crocodile’. It could have been debris and we just couldn’t get closer and didn’t have time to look, but part of me hopes that it is a crocodile and we’ve got some sort of new species and global warming is changing the ecosystem or something!”
What is the tale of the Bristol crocodile?
(Image: Martin Booth / SWNS)
The initial ‘sighting’ dates back to 2014 when a bus driver insisted he’d seen the a crocodile in the river. Police even tweeted about the incident, saying: “One of our officers was flagged down by a bus driver today, claiming to have seen a 6ft crocodile. We can’t find it.”
His sighting sparked other people to report they had also seen a crocodile in the river too.
Then, over a decade after the sighting, a sculpture in homage to the croc from anonymous Bristol artist, Getting Up To Stuff was placed in an alcove overlooking the Floating Harbour. Signs have also been put up in the past, warning swimmers of a crocodile in the water, and more recent ones were also made to warn of sightings of the creature, with its own hashtag – #BristolCroc, being tied to nearby telegraph poles.
While experts largely dispute the claim on the idea of a crocodile living in the decidedly un-tropical conditions of the muddy tidal river, the possibility has over the years caught the imagination of many a Bristolians Bristol Crocodile merchandise has even been produced, with one student going as far as creating a short film on the infamous croc.