The strange world of crocodile hairballs

March 13, 2024 11:03 PM

The strange world of crocodile hairballs and the Queenslanders who collect them. Anyone with a pet cat will have borne witness to the nauseating process of hairball expulsion, but it is also necessary for crocodiles. (The fur that they are expelling is from furry creatures that they have eaten, like wallabies or kangaroos.)
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (16 comments total)

They found several species of flying fox... and human hair … both Caucasian and Melanesian," he said

"This crocodile had been around for a fair while … and being opportunistic feeders, he'd had his munch on a couple of people as well.

The researchers were fascinated by the findings

Yup, just fascinated, not shocked, surprised, or taken aback, just yup large reptile ate a few people happens all the time.
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 11:42 PM on March 13 [3 favorites]

Yup, just fascinated, not shocked, surprised, or taken aback, just yup large reptile ate a few people happens all the time

Pink Fuzzy Bunny, while crocodiles have certainly been known to kill people, and are certainly a genuine danger that should be treated with enormous respect and enormous caution, they are also big on scavenging things that were already dead (and are not fussy about decomposed flesh), so human hair could also mean

a) the crocodile scavenged someone who drowned without crocodile involvement

b) the crocodile scavenged someone who was fishing and died of a heart attack/stroke

c) the crocodile scavenged someone who died in a car accident

d) the crocodile scavenged someone who was murdered and then thrown into the river/mangroves (crocodiles are a great way to dispose of a murdered body, there would almost certainly be more murder charges in Queensland if there were no crocodiles)
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 11:54 PM on March 13 [8 favorites]

"there would almost certainly be more murder charges in Queensland if there were no crocodiles"

That's going straight to the pool room.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 12:05 AM on March 14 [3 favorites]

large reptile ate a few people happens all the time.

Sources say, every three months, a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in north Queensland.
posted by zamboni at 4:42 AM on March 14 [2 favorites]

Sources say, every three months, a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in north Queensland.

Between 2001 and 2017, crocodiles caused 21 deaths, total, for the whole of Australia. Not per year, total.

That's about 1.3 crocodile related deaths per year.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 4:53 AM on March 14 [3 favorites]

Whoa. Is it possible that cat's hairballs are not actually their own hair, as we have self-deceptively told ourselves, but the hair of cute little animals that they have eaten!?!?! Somebody needs to send Fluffy's hack-up to Queensland for analysis.
posted by bitslayer at 4:54 AM on March 14 [1 favorite]

She looked again at her hand. Five Pentacles, a flush! “I see your three owl pellets,” she said, pushing her bet into the pot, “and raise you a crocodile bezoar.”
posted by Ishbadiddle at 5:49 AM on March 14 [4 favorites]

As @Ishbadiddle observes, "hairball" is a bit misleading here, and "bezoar" would be much more apropos.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 6:13 AM on March 14

Between 2001 and 2017, crocodiles caused 21 deaths, total, for the whole of Australia. Not per year, total.

I was about to say that's surprisingly close to those due to the American alligator, but then I remembered the population difference between the US and Australia. Gators really are lazy bastards. (And we're not generally on the menu.)
posted by brundlefly at 6:22 AM on March 14

gosh I love the Internet sometimes, how else would I have found myself desperately curious about whether alligators can digest hair?

This tasty piece suggests that American alligators can make bezoars too! But it's pretty rare, apparently. Mostly they just do normal barfs.

I'm so excited to tell my kids what I learned today!!
posted by Baethan at 7:21 AM on March 14 [1 favorite]

do we have a Top 10 list for chariot pulled by cassowaries yet?

I vote this one into the list
posted by elkevelvet at 8:26 AM on March 14 [2 favorites]

Why is this not already elevated to the Best of page?
posted by kensington314 at 9:39 AM on March 14

I don't collect exclusively crocodile hairballs, but I certainly have a couple on my person at most times.
posted by zamboni at 9:50 AM on March 14 [3 favorites]

I thought this article was fun and informative. Thanks!
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 10:47 AM on March 14

Didn’t Crocodile Hairballs play the second stage at the first Warped Tour?
posted by Mister Moofoo at 11:38 AM on March 14 [2 favorites]

I can now tell my biologist friend who finds and pulls apart bird pellets all day "no longer impressed...you need to up your game".
posted by kjs3 at 9:37 AM on March 15 [1 favorite]