By Martin Ruffell
**EXCLUSIVE**
THE EXTRAORDINARY moment an enormous one-thousand-five-hundred-pound crocodile eats a SHARK has been captured on camera.
In one photo, the Nile crocodile could be seen closing in on the 100-pound bull shark pup with its huge mouth open wide, ready to feast on its prey.
In a second image, the reptile was pictured with the shark upside down between its jaws, unable to escape its grim fate.
The once in a lifetime moment was captured by research scientist and photographer Mark Ziembicki (46) from North Queensland, Australia, during a recent visit to the east coast of South Africa.
According to Mark, the combination of the recent opening of the St Lucia estuary and excessive rainfall inland caused freshwater species to be washed downriver into saline coastal waters, leading to the unlikely meeting between the two apex predators – which happened just 60 feet away from where Mark was standing.
Mark captured the images using a Canon 5D SLR camera with a 300mm lens.
“While we were busy taking photos of another crocodile on the bank there was some commotion about one-hundred feet away,” said Mark.
“A local resident of the area who was also there, shouted there was a croc eating a shark.
“We turned to see the shark thrashing away in the crocodile’s mouth.
“It spent about ten minutes with the shark in its jaws, tossing it about.
“The shark gradually moved less until it was eventually swallowed whole headfirst.
“We were completely taken by surprise.
“We’d been observing both the crocodiles and sharks in the area for several hours and were wondering what would happen if the two might meet.
“We had our answer I guess, although obviously there was a size mis-match on this occasion.”
Crocodiles have the most powerful bite in the animal kingdom, with the Nile species’ bite exerting a force eight times greater than that of a great white shark.
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