In central east Africa, the Rusizi river flows through the small country of Burundi. Fishermen
wade along the murky banks, when suddenly they find that the riverbank isn’t a riverbank at all,
but a deadly monster with a taste for human blood.
Today on Nutty History, meet Gustave, the largest Nile Crocodile ever known to man.
Oh and we don’t recommend a handshake, as he does have a tendency to rip off limbs.
Because of Gustave’s elusive reputation, as well as his high kill count, he’s taken on legendary
monster status to the local villages along the lake side of Burundi, ever since he started
attacking humans sometime during the 1980’s. But unlike the Lochness monster or the Chupacabra,
this massive maneater is definitevely real. Known to roam the Ruzizi river and the upper shores of
Lake Tanganyika, the local rumor mill puts his death toll at an astounding 300 people. Villagers
sporting wounds from their own near death experiences with this very hungry crocodile are
all too common. In the Animal Planet documentary, “Capturing the Killer Croc,” a man lifts his shirt
to show off his near disembowelment at Gustave’s hands, or rather his jaws. Damn, I live like 8,000
miles from Burundi and I’m shook. The locals were shooketh as well, and folklore surrounding Gustave
took on a life of its own. Some locals claim that unlike an ordinary crocodile, Gustave is red,
yellow, and grows tufts of grass out of his head like a straight up demon crocodile. BRB,
pitching The Exorcism of Gustave to film studios. In the Animal Planet documentary, a local medicine
man describes his belief that the animal is under the spell of an evil human, even attempting to
break the spell in the hopes of Gustave being caught. Still, maybe don’t go in the water.
Calling Gustave giant is actually an understatement. While your typical Nile Crocodiles
range from 5 feet to 12 feet tops, Gustave pretty much defies nature. Based on sightings,
estimates clock him at 20 feet long (at least) and weighing over 2,000 pounds,
making him a straight up prehistoric beast. At first, scientists thought Gustave had to
be nearing the end of his life, about 100 years old, due to his, particularly, uh, robust body.
But after seeing his fairly intact chompers, that estimate was changed to less than 60 years old,
since a hundred year old croc would be missing all his teeth. That meant that Gustave had a good
40 years to continue terrorizing the people of Burundi, and that he was still growing.
While Gustave’s size may make him the stuff of nightmares, some scientists think that
his unique shape actually impedes his ability to hunt typical and more agile prey - fish,
or antelope, and zebra. Instead, it could be the reason for Gustave’s unusual diet - including
hippos, wildebeests, and of course, humans. Crocodiles don’t usually dine on hippopotami,
but Gustave is no basic beast. He’s been known to take down an adult hippopotamus.
Another possible factor in Gustave’s diet is the lack of other mammals in the Rusizi National Park.
Many were poached off in the 1950’s, leaving hippos as the main remaining mammal. Either way,
Crocs are known to adapt well. They didn’t survive on Earth for 200 million years without learning
how to go with the flow. But there’s also evidence that Gustave’s taste for human flesh is more of a
preference than an environmental necessity. For one, crocodiles can go several months without
eating, so it’s likely that Gustave is purposeful and particular about the prey he chooses to hunt.
Even more bone chilling? According to locals, many of the corpses of Gustave’s victims were
left uneaten. Witnesses have seen him drown men and then leave their bodies intact.
Gustave’s murderous rampage may not be motivated by hunger at all, but by a dislike for humans
invading his personal space. With his sheer bulk, this croc probably needs a wide berth.
Gustave might also not care for humans so much due to the many battle wounds they’ve given him.
Though it’s not known exactly when or how Gustave came across his injuries,
he appears to have a spear wound and four bullet wounds from literal machine guns.
It’s rumored that soldiers attempted to take down the homicidal croc with AK47s.
The locals believed he escaped death by eating the bullets, while scientists say his incredible
size essentially makes him bulletproof. Either way this badass croc was not going down easily,
and his apparent invincibility only cemented his mythical status further.
In the 2004 doc, “Capturing the Killer Croc,” a herpetologist (that’s someone who studies
reptiles) Patrice Faye and his crew attempted to gnab Gustave alive, saving the day while
also allowing them to study one of the wildest wild animals of all time. Or at least that’s how
it was supposed to go. Faye and his team only had two months to attempt to get Gustave. After that,
a change in government risked putting the conflict heavy country into civil war, and the mission
would no longer be feasible. Faye first tried to trap the croc by building a ginormous cage trap,
measuring 30 feet long and weighing a ton to hopefully hold the burly Gustave. Yeah,
that thing really blends in. They poured cow blood on the trap door and put in infrared cameras,
which ended up revealing that the cage not only didn’t lure in Gustave, but not even a measly
little baby croc. Gustave is straight up laughing at you guys. Next they tried Pitman snare traps,
which caught them a smaller, inexperienced croc, but not someone who’s been around the block like
Gustave. Finally, nearing their tight deadline, the team put live bait into the cage trap,
first a chicken and then a goat. After a particularly heavy night of rain, they returned
to check the trap. The goat was missing, the trap fallen halfway into the river, and the camera
destroyed. Not only were they unable to capture Gustave, but the missing camera footage left them
no information about what actually happened. Our money’s on Gustave outsmarting them once again.
During his lifetime, Gustave seems to have taken sporadic breaks from murdering people, and there
have been years where he’s gone unseen before popping back up again to terrorize the locals.
The last sighting of Gustave was in 2015, and in Travel Africa Mag, a claim is made by a traveller
to Burundi that the croc died in 2019. However, Gustave’s death has never been confirmed, and
we’re thinking that body wouldn’t have stay hidden for long. After the whole lot of everything else
that’s happened in 2020, we wouldn’t be surprised if 2021 was the year a super-sized, man-eating
crocodile decided to resurface. Let us know your theories on Gustave in the comments, as well as
other insane creatures in history you’d like to hear about next time. After a while, crocodiles!