VIDEO: Bristol Crocodile captured on camera - or is it an al-log-ator?
| Posted: February 11, 2014
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IS this the proof that Bristol is playing host to a six-foot crocodile? Tom Aditya, a Bradley Stoke town councillor, believes he has captured the elusive Bristol crocodile on video.
He made the film while walking by the River Avon near Pill.
In his amateur footage, an object – not dissimilar to a log – can be seen moving towards the banks of the river where birds take flight, possibly in fear.
The film, captured in October but published exclusively by the Bristol Post for the first time today, follows two sightings of a crocodile last week which have led to a police investigation and city-wide speculation.
But Mr Aditya has dismissed the idea that the object he filmed is a crocodile – or a log – in favour of his own theory that our reptilian friend is an alligator.
In the video, Mr Aditya focuses on a dark brown object drifting in the brown waters of the mouth of the Avon.
The camera is focused on the object for almost two and a half minutes.
Mr Aditya told the Bristol Post that when he first spotted the alleged reptile in October he "didn't think much of it".
But when he read the news that Avon and Somerset police chief constable Nick Gargan had told the public that police were searching for the beast, he was reminded of his close encounter.
He said he has now contacted the police but they declined his offer to send the video to them.
Mr Aditya, a management consultant who runs his own firm from Bristol and London, said he spotted the reptile while on one of his regular walks down the Avon to Pill.
He said: "I remember I could see its eyes there and at first I thought it could be a seal, but then it kept moving up the river slowly.
"I thought it was quite natural at first. I was a bit amazed, I thought 'why?'
"After that I didn't really think about it. I thought it might be naturally there.
"Then when I heard someone spotted a crocodile in Bristol, I went back to the video."
Sceptics have already dismissed various sightings of the Bristol crocodile as nothing more than a floating log.
Mr Aditya added that he had consulted his friend about the video who had offered his own conclusion.
He said: "I have shown it to a friend in Florida and he believes that it is a crocodile of the gharial species from the Indian subcontinent. It is a fish-eating crocodile.
"It may have reached here through any vessel that passed through the Bristol channel."
Fears that a crocodile was on the loose in Bristol were first triggered when Mr Gargan tweeted last week that a bus driver had reported a sighting from Bedminster Bridge.
Mr Gargan revealed the police had launched an investigation, but a search "found no trace" of the beast.
A second sighting of the alleged crocodile in the Avon came from 41-year-old mother-of-three Kelly Gray, of Bishopsworth, who saw the beast from Clarence Road on Wednesday.
Police said Mr Aditya's call about his video had been logged, however, they added there was no on-going investigation into the sightings. A spokesman said the police were unable to say how many calls they have received about crocodiles since last Monday's first sighting.
Read more: http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Bristol-beast-Crocodile-captured-camera-ndash-al/story-20601058-detail/story.html#ixzz2tUa90zTr
[In my opinion the object shown is possibly a seal, as Mr Aditya thought at first. Historically, though, some of the reports seem to have been giant salamanders and it is possible some reports out of the current crop of sightings are, too-DD]
[Additional note, a later photograph purported to be this same "Bristol Crocodile" seems to me to be transparently a hoax-DD]
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