IT IS hard to believe these helpless hatchlings will one day grow into one of the most feared and cunning predators on the planet.
Fully grown, crocodiles of the far north lie in wait in pools of water as the tide rushes inland and up the river.
These misunderstood beasts of the north know the tide will bring food, with the Northern Territory's wet season king tides washing in thousands of fish 60km up the Mary River east of Darwin.
About eight times a year, a congregation of crocodiles will gather on the inland side of the river's natural rock barriers and simply bide their time until the water level rises high enough for the fish to leap over the barricades.
"When you get particularly high tides, fish are able to move across the barrier from the tidal section to the non-tidal section," Darwin-based crocodile expert Adam Britton said.
"The crocodiles use that to their advantage and try and catch as many fish as possible," he said.
This remarkable quirk of nature was impressive enough to attract world-renowned wildlife documentary filmmaker Sir David Attenborough to the NT in late 2006 to capture the feeding frenzy.
About 70 crocodiles lined up waiting for the fish to arrive. The BBC film crew used infrared cameras to record the event.
"Because they were so focused on the fish, we were able to get David Attenborough to stand right in the middle of them," said Mr Britton, who was a consultant on the upcoming Life in Cold Blood series.
The NT has an estimated 70-80,000 thousand saltwater crocodiles and the population has been steadily increasing again after steep declines before the 1970s.
But the people who know them best are constantly frustrated about crocodiles' poor reputation.
"They're portrayed as nature's killing machines, but they're not," said wildlife consultant Ian Morris.
Mr Morris said crocodiles were generally shy animals that steered clear of humans and only became aggressive at times when they felt threatened.
"Australia has got the only decent population of saltwater crocodiles in the world," he said.
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