Snake kills crocodile-attack survivor

Woman attacked by crocodile
Put into death roll, escapes, attacked again
Dies by snakebite on her farm

A WOMAN who survived an extraordinary crocodile attack has been killed by a snake.

Respected ecologist, feminist and author Val Plumwood - who described her death roll with the giant saltie as "terror, terror, terror" - was found dead on her wilderness property.

The species of snake responsible for her death was still unknown last night.

Dr Plumwood, who was 67 when she died, was attacked by a crocodile while birdwatching from a canoe in Kakadu in 1985.

A territorial male charged the canoe, probably mistaking it for a rival.

Dr Plumwood shouted "go away" at the croc, lent up and clambered on to an overhanging tree branch.

The croc jumped up and wrenched her out of the tree.

Death roll

The univesity academic said she thought she was going to die as the saltie went into a death roll with her clamped in its jaws.

But, for an unknown reason, the crocodile let go and Dr Plumwood found the water was shallow enough for her to stand up in.

She pulled herself back into the tree - but the croc again exploded out of the water and grabbed her.

And again it let her go.

Terrible wounds

Dr Plumwood sttaggered out of the water and crawled up a 2m mud bank, blood pouring from hideous wounds to her upper legs and pelvis.

She slithered down the bank twice before reaching the top.

Dr Plumwood dragged herself through the bush for a couple of hours.

It was dark before she was found by a rescue party.

"I was alive," she said. "Against all expectation, I was alive."

Backed the croc

Even as Dr Plumwood was being driven to Royal Darwin Hospital, she begged her rescuers not to hunt down and kill the crocodile that nearly killed her.

She said the animal was only doing what it was genetically primed to do.

"As I began my 13-hour journey to Darwin, my rescuers discussed going upriver the next day to shoot a crocodile," she said.

"I spoke strongly against this plan.

"I was the intruder - and no good purpose could be served by random revenge."

Dr Plumwood is believed to have died at her bush retreat near Canberra on Thursday. Her body was discovered on Saturday.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23316414-2,00.html

That's a shame. A loss of a champion for reptiles is a huge loss across the board.