Tall tales from Crocodile Mick - 6th November 2003
(Credit: ABC)

Reporter: Jess Daly (online)

Presenter: Wayne Shearman

You can’t help but draw parallels between the Croc Hunter himself, Steve Irwin and “Crocodile Mick” Pitman.

For starters they both live and breathe their darling’ crocs and they both have a penchant for spinning yarns about their reptile friends.

But as we discovered recently when Crocodile Mick dropped into the studio, this is where the similarities begin and end and Mick isn’t afraid tell everyone about it.

“I've been told by the Steve Irwin mob that I'm actually infringing on the copyright by using the word crocodile hunter.

"I find it pretty ironic that I come out of the bush after living a quiet humble life with a swag on my back, producing stories that I want to share with the public...and out of the 132,000 websites, he picked mine and tells me to get crocodile hunter off the site."

To be fair, Mick is a little more Alby Mangles than his khaki-wearing counterpart, and after 16 years as an illegal crocodile poacher, he’s still spearing crocs, only now with a licence.

"I actually got my experience from the first 16 years from poaching crocodiles in the northern part of Australia and had all sorts of law enforcement after me for quite some time.

"In the end they actually offered me an amnesty and that's how come I'm actually doing it legally now, I've got a licence and so forth for it."

Websites

Media

ABC - Wide Bay, Queensland

Mediaman - Crocodile Hunters showcase

Official website

Crocodile Mick

Profiles

Regional and Rural News Directory

The Crocodile Hunters

Mediaman

Entertainment