He ate 300 people: Who is Gustave the crocodile?
Aren't there famous people but not famous "animals"? Gustave is the most famous of all crocodiles. But it's not a pretty and positive reputation. Would you like to get to know Gustave?
Gustave, the huge crocodile living in East Africa and allegedly eating 300 people, continues to instill fear in the people of the region.
Living in the East African country of Burundi; Gustav, an alligator estimated to be "six meters in length and weighing close to a ton", is believed to have eaten 300 people to date.
Gustav, believed to be one of the largest crocodiles on the African continent, lives near Lake Tanganyika and continues to wreak havoc.
For decades, many hunters have set out to catch the huge crocodile, but none have been successful.
Gustave is a large male Nile crocodile from Burundi. He is notorious for being a man-eater and is rumored to have killed as many as 300 people from the banks of the Ruzizi River and the northern shores of Lake Tanganyika. Though the actual number is difficult to verify, he has obtained near-mythical status and was greatly feared by people in the region.
Gustav, who was also the subject of a TV documentary called "Capturing the Killer Crocodile," is believed to have at least three gunshot wounds left over from hunters.
French crocodile hunter Patrice Faye assembled a team to hunt Gustav and set traps in his habitat, but Gustav noticed the traps and never came close to the bait, allowing smaller crocodiles to be caught instead.
BREAKING TRAPS
As a last resort, Faye and her crew prepared new traps and put live bait inside, but Gustav realized that these traps were also set up to catch him.
After checking the traps after a stormy night, Faye saw that the baited goat had disappeared and the traps were drawn into the water. The team, assuming that Gustav was strong enough to smash the traps set up, admitted defeat and ended the hunt.
THE MOST DANGEROUS TIMES
Faye, who has spent years studying Gustave, told the BBC the giant crocodile was "three times larger" than other alligators in the area and was extremely dangerous.
Faye said the killer crocodile was most dangerous when he "left his island to find a mate."
CAN GUSTAVE KILL FOR FUN?
"Gustave often kills people for fun, because sometimes he doesn't completely eat the corpses of those he kills," says, residents. But this is unlikely, according to crocodile experts, because crocodiles eat all their prey.
Why did they name that crocodile Gustave?
Gustave was named by Patrice Faye, a herpetologist who has been studying and investigating him since the late 1990s.