A crocodile handler spent more than an hour fighting for his life with his legs trapped inside the beast’s powerful jaws, clinging desperately to the edge of a pool as horrified witnesses struggled to save him.
The experienced animal keeper died on Sept. 6 after an encounter with one of the crocodiles he had spent about two years caring for turned deadly at Adventure Park in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
A day earlier, the handler, identified online as Kupi Rapura, had entered the animal’s enclosure with a chicken for a feeding demonstration when the crocodile suddenly turned on him.
“He brought the chicken to the fence and the crocodile attacked the person and tried to bring him into the pool,” Gibson John, who witnessed the incident, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Croc grips man’s legs
Video filmed through the enclosure fence captured parts of the terrifying struggle, showing Rapura being taken to the ground before the view becomes partially obscured.
When he is clearly visible again, Rapura is in the water at the edge of the pool, desperately clinging on while the crocodile remains at his side, its jaws reportedly locked around his legs.
People gathered outside the enclosure searching for a way to help, with one person passing Rapura a pole through the fence. Later, another man climbed into the enclosure and can be seen reaching down from the pool’s edge to grip the keeper by the arms, later holding his hand as the Rapura appeared to be weakening.
Still, the crocodile refused to release him.
‘He couldn’t scream’
As the attack stretched past an hour, Rapura remained trapped in the crocodile’s powerful jaws while those around him desperately searched for a way to save his life.
“We couldn’t assist at that time, [but] I managed to contact the St John’s Ambulance,” John told ABC.
“The security guards had no guns but gave him a small iron rod to use until the police and St John’s Ambulance came,” he continued.
Through the excruciating pain, Rapura remained conscious, but John could see what the attack was doing to him.
“He was in severe pain, but he couldn’t scream,” John recalled. “He couldn’t speak properly at that time. It was the pain I could see from his eyes.”
And while Rapura struggled to speak, John remembered hearing him manage one haunting sentence.
“The only thing I could hear him say was, ‘I haven’t done anything wrong’.”
Rapura lost leg before dying
Visitors were eventually cleared from Adventure Park as police arrived and rescuers continued trying to free the badly injured keeper.
Adventure Park later confirmed that officers euthanized the crocodile during the rescue, finally allowing Rapura to be freed.
John said he later learned that Rapura had lost a leg before he was taken to hospital.
“I’ve never seen something like this before. I couldn’t believe what I saw,” he said.
Rapura was rushed away for emergency treatment, but his injuries proved fatal. He died early the following morning.
‘Betrayed by a monster’
According to the National Capital District Commission (NCDC), Rapura had spent years working around crocodiles before the animal he cared for ultimately killed him.
Before moving to Port Moresby in 2013, the father of eight had worked at Baiyer Zoo. He later joined the Adventure Park, that described him as a “senior and highly experienced animal keeper” who was a “valued member” of the team.
For Rapura’s family, however, his death carried a particularly painful betrayal: the animals had been part of his life and work for years, and his nephew described the crocodile that killed him as an animal his uncle had trusted.
“The trust and loyalty have been betrayed by a monster you’ve been treated as a pet,” LeeMack Joe Tikippii wrote in a Facebook tribute. “Never knew one day your best friend would take your life. The highest level of betrayal won’t be forgotten in the history of our family.”
What do you think this tragedy says about the importance of respecting wild animals? Please let us know what you think, then share this story as a reminder that wildlife should never be underestimated.
Read more:
