A crocodile agitated by a chainsaw's noise has chased the man operating it and snatched the machinery from him.
Freddy Buckland was at a Northern Territory roadhouse on Friday cutting a dead tree that had fallen against a saltwater crocodile pen during Cyclone Monica when the 4.4-metre reptile struck.
"As he was trimming up the tree on the outside the croc jumped out of the water and sped along the tree about 18, 20 feet and actually grabbed the chainsaw out of his hands," said Peter Shappert, the owner of the Corroboree Park Tavern, 80km east of Darwin.
"It must have been the noise ... I don't think he was actually trying to grab Freddy, but I'm not sure. He had a fair go at him ... I think he just grabbed the first thing he could and it happened to be the chainsaw."
Mr Buckland was not injured, nor was the crocodile, named Brutus.
"But he (the crocodile) is still a bit upset ... he's still a bit agitated, but he's all right," said Mr Shappert.
"He chewed on the chainsaw for about an hour-and-a-half, then we finally got it out.
"We got a bit of reinforcing rod, bent with a hook on the end, and at the same time we were draining the pen. It's still in one piece but, yeah, it's buggered."
Mr Shappert said he was thinking about changing the crocodile's name to "two-stroke".
As for the cleaning up effort, it's been postponed for a couple of days.
"We've just left the tree where it is. I think we'll reassess how we're going to do it," said Mr Shappert.
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