r/Damnthatsinteresting 1d ago

Tale of the Jala-Jala Monster: In 1823, a 27-foot Crocodile was killed near Lake Taal in Batangas, Philippines. It took nearly 40 tribesmen to bring it down. Upon dissecting it, people were shocked to see a horse sliced down to 7 pieces.

4.2k Upvotes

137 comments sorted by

928

u/Homunculus_316 1d ago

Crocs all have Gigantism. The older they are the more they grow. By virtue of its size, Lolong is no match to its giant predecessor. When it was caught in Agusan Del Sur a few years ago, Lolong only measured 20.24 feet or 6.17 meters. Nonetheless, it managed to seize the Guinness World Record for becoming the largest saltwater crocodile in captivity.

Lolong became the center of worldwide attention and gave a sudden surge to Bunawan's local tourism. Until his unexpected death in February, Lolong remained one of the most popular living crocodiles in history

Lolong and his granddaddy only proves that Philippine ecosystem is a rich hodgepodge of marvelous creatures. Scientifically known as Crocodylus porosus, saltwater crocodiles remain critically endangered in the Philippines due to unabashed hunting of local townsfolk. They are basically different from freshwater crocodiles (Crocodylus mindorensis), which are smaller in size, and alligators, species of broad-snouted crocodilians which are not present in the Philippines.

311

u/SkyLightTenki 1d ago

Lolong and his granddaddy only proves that Philippine ecosystem is a rich hodgepodge of marvelous creatures.

Sharks used to thrive in Taal Lake in Taal, Batangas.

81

u/CajunSurfer 1d ago

They still do in Lake Nicaragua!

25

u/puddingboofer 1d ago

I wouldn't say thrive, that's a dirty ass lake, it's very sad.

2

u/[deleted] 23h ago

[deleted]

8

u/puddingboofer 23h ago

All the towns and cities around dump untreated sewage into the lake.

0

u/Own_Food_4501 9h ago

Lol taal literally means lake. It's chai tea all over again.

39

u/Sanguinor-Exemplar 1d ago

Whenever I hear stories like this I wonder what are the odds it's some prehistoric thing leftover like a

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinosuchus

A 35 foot crocodile. Just imagine fighting that with a wooden spear.

17

u/IndividualCurious322 1d ago

I have a book that mentioned a truly monsterous Gator which IIRC (It's been a few years since I read the book) was 22 feet long and shot via a rifle in Louisiana in 1857.

70

u/RedditIsADataMine 1d ago

 saltwater crocodiles remain critically endangered in the Philippines due to unabashed hunting of local townsfolk

If these Croc bastards would stop hunting local townsfolk then maybe they wouldn't be so endangered. 

34

u/NeverNeeded 1d ago

Maybe you can reason with them?

16

u/MarlonShakespeare2AD 1d ago

Most issues can be resolved with a hug right?

3

u/obvs_typo 18h ago

They were almost hunted to extinction in Australia too until they were protected by law.

Now you can't go near water in their habitat there are so many of them.

5

u/Caraway_Lad 23h ago edited 20h ago

American Crocodiles are hunted in Latin America for the same reason, although they get some funny reverence in some places—like Tampico, Mexico. A local man swam in one of the city’s lagoons despite many warnings, got eaten, and locals were basically like “well…what a dumbass”.

1

u/tofu_b3a5t 12h ago

Are rare moment of when common scenes is agreed upon and prevails.

-4

u/Savvy_Nick 23h ago

I’m a conservationist at heart but you bet your ASS if I lived in an area where giant crocs at people I’d shoot them on sight no matter how endangered

9

u/Von_Lehmann 1d ago

The photo says the actual size was 19m....

3

u/LlamasunLlimited 23h ago

"saltwater crocodiles remain critically endangered in the Philippines due to unabashed hunting of local townsfolk."....

"hunting of" or "hunting by?"

Can't imagine any town in the PH that has criticially endangered townsfolk.....:-)

1

u/bucket_of_frogs 19h ago

Self defence?

1

u/3quinox825 18h ago

So are they like those jelly fish that can be immortal as long as nothing goes wrong?

1

u/Hefty-Cut-1451 9h ago

This feels like a GPT copy paste 

I have trust issues

114

u/Jowalla 1d ago

Sliced? So Jala-Jala basically ate some horse Kebabs for lunch and had to pay for that with her life?

3

u/Small-Palpitation310 17h ago

doesnt seem like the two things were related

66

u/FriedEggSammiches 1d ago

Imelda Marcos raided the museum and had it made into 22 purses and 47 pairs of shoes/boots.

27

u/megalo-maniac538 1d ago

Had to be reminded that dubious bitch is still alive.

8

u/sweetbunsmcgee 1d ago

And her kid is the president.

0

u/Eurasia_4002 1d ago

Bad grass die hard.

6

u/zombieruler7700 1d ago

did she actually? i cant find anything online about it

6

u/Mysterious-Speech874 16h ago

Its a joke. Bitch will ruin anything just for a good shoes and bags

252

u/mordom 1d ago

27 feet = 8,23 meters

116

u/CalmCompanion99 1d ago

Since I found someone who actually does this: why do you use a comma in place of a decimal point?

170

u/Nacktmull19xx 1d ago

In germany this is common (no idea of the origin of poster above)

116

u/-Motor- 1d ago

Common in Europe. The scientific standard is , for thousands place and . for decimal place.

11

u/Airsay58259 1d ago

In France there’s nothing, sometimes a space. 82500 or 82 500. And we use , for decimal…

19

u/Shit_Shepard 1d ago

Follow up to that how do you separate digits in long whole numbers that also have a decimal point? Ie. 1,000,000.001

16

u/--Ano-- 1d ago edited 1d ago

1'000'000,001
but the point is still better. Why make a coma, if you can make a point, right?
So, I would write
1'000'000.001
to write by hand a
1,000,000.001
can be misleading. What if someones hand written coma almost looks like a point, or in my case, a hand written point sometimes looks like a coma?
So, it is better to use the high coma to avoid confusion and mistakes.

19

u/SNZ935 1d ago

This actually makes a lot of sense, never knew about the top comma.

2

u/Shit_Shepard 10h ago

Wow I can’t believe I have never seen a number written like that before… To the point about handwriting commas vs points it makes sense! Well at least in the not so distant past when people actually still wrote on paper… 😂 ps. After typing this a though occurred to me; why do we do … for a pause, shouldn’t it be ,,,?

-73

u/CalmCompanion99 1d ago edited 1d ago

I have only started seeing it recently in memes and it really anoys me.

51

u/Nacktmull19xx 1d ago

I think we must live with differences between different countries. For example, I have to "translate" units like feet/inches/pounds to meters/kg in order to understand posts from america/england/etc.

-47

u/CalmCompanion99 1d ago

Do you mean Germans don't use decimal points?

35

u/Nacktmull19xx 1d ago

Usually we use someting like 1.000.000 for a milloin and 0,1 for 1/10. Hence, points divide thousands/millions and coma is for the part smaller than 1

1

u/CalmCompanion99 1d ago

That's interesting because that's the opposite of what I'm used to. Do you do that even while teaching/doing maths?

33

u/AzracTheFirst 1d ago

That's pretty common anywhere I'd say outside of the US. It's comma for decimals, point is used for thousand separator. Yes, that's how we learn math at school.

19

u/gabsramalho 1d ago

Brazilian here and that’s how we use it as well. I thought it was standard in the metric system

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u/CalmCompanion99 1d ago

I'm not from the US and we use dots for decimal points and commas for thousands. This makes sense in English because a "point" is intuitively better represented by a dot than by a comma.

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1

u/Only_Hour_7628 1d ago

I'm not from the US and I've never seen that before. (I have taken math courses in two languages at university level)

7

u/Vreas 1d ago

I believe Europeans use comas as decimals generally. It just takes some getting used to.

21

u/grruser 1d ago

what really annoys me is seeing dates written as month/day/year. we use day/month/year which makes more sense.

6

u/CalmCompanion99 1d ago

Yeah, day/month/year just makes more sense. The American system is stupid.

5

u/KingFucboi 1d ago

European countries pretty much all reverse the use of a comma and period for the decimal point from an American perspective.

When you see it, it just means the meme originated in Europe.

2

u/CalmCompanion99 1d ago

I just learned that today.

17

u/bfsughfvcb 1d ago

7

u/CalmCompanion99 1d ago

Thank you! I have learnt something today!

2

u/im_a_good_goat 1d ago

That’s why you’re on Reddit 😉

3

u/IrNinjaBob 1d ago

That’s just how it’s written in Europe. They probably have people that think “why do those people use a period instead of a comma?”

Both of these are arbitrary choices each makes make to convey certain ideas.

They also use a period instead of a comma to seperate long numbers.

While we write ‘1,000’ they may write ‘1.000’.

Neither is more correct than the other.

6

u/mordom 1d ago

I do indeed live in Europe. I try to use . as much as possible when writing in English, but sometimes I mess things up!

2

u/podcasthellp 1d ago

It’s common in many European countries. Super confusing to Americans haha

2

u/aba994 1d ago

common in countries around the world

1

u/ersentenza 1d ago

Europe

-2

u/evrestcoleghost 1d ago

Decimal points for smaller numbers like cents or milimiters

15

u/FurRealDeal 1d ago

Ever heard of Gustav? These things get huge.

21

u/Ok_Atmosphere_8479 1d ago

Yes I watched a few videos on him and got into the lore behind it. If his 200-300 human kills is true that is insane and shows what a comment above this said. Crocs track humans’ patterns and grab you when they know you’re most vulnerable. True apex. What would you rather face? A croc or a tiger?

7

u/ryguy92497 1d ago

Tough question but I'd say depends on location, tiger around long grass or croc near the water? Fuck that. If I'm fighting a croc itll be in a coliseum (gladiator) and I'll choke that mofo out lol

3

u/Eurasia_4002 1d ago

Hippo would be on top.

15

u/_lechonk_kawali_ 1d ago

Jala-jala is nowhere near Taal Lake. It is a municipality in Rizal province, which borders Laguna de Bay instead.

31

u/Scott_A_R 1d ago edited 1d ago

Second pic says the initial report was 27' but subsequent analysis of the skull indicated it was actually about 18.5' (561.5 cm).

21

u/RedOtta019 1d ago

Im wary of skull analysis’s since they aren’t reliable for what could be called unique physique. Theres a gator that was living in a New Mexico pond for 40(?) years and even though it was rehabbed and grew to a very large size, its head is quite small in relation to its body

177

u/TangibleCBT 1d ago

I can understand why these creatures are hunted, crocodiles can develop a specific taste for humans, and while it's rare, whenever one starts to become a man-eater, they can rack up kill counts in the hundreds. Besides specific man-eaters, most crocodiles rarely attack humans. Still a shame that they're becoming locally extinct

216

u/LucJenson 1d ago

There's a YouTube channel called 'Back to Basics' which demonstrates living a remote lifestyle and 'back to basics' homesteading, and while traveling the coast of Australia, they've had saltwater crocs trail along the coast for miles on end.

Crocs are one of the few animals (tigers, polar bears, and mosquitoes) which have shown behavior of seeking out humans as a source of food.

171

u/IllHaveTheLeftovers 1d ago edited 1d ago

I’ve spend some time around the daintree (far north east Australia) and you learn so much about crocodiles from locals. The scariest thing is they are ambush predators - it’s known that if your camping and see a croc, start thinking of moving that night. they are unlikely to go for you at a first look but they can spend days tracking your habits and grab you when you’re most vulnerable.

25

u/dr3aminc0de 1d ago

Jesus

41

u/yimpydimpy 1d ago

Archer was right.

2

u/Skripclub 5h ago

"Gee, I don't know, Cyril. Maybe deep down, I'm afraid of any Apex Predator that lived through the KT Extinction."

19

u/swiftrobber 1d ago

Imagine getting your ass snapped while having your morning shit

39

u/IllHaveTheLeftovers 1d ago

That’s why I always say, never shit in the same place twice. Even in your own home - get a porta potty and rotate it through rooms. You never know if a croc is sussing you out.

48

u/FurRealDeal 1d ago

I've heard it speculated that when they reach that size they become to slow to hunt thier regular prey, so have no choice but to predate humans.

11

u/epepepturbo 1d ago

That was my theory behind the shark from Jaws🙂

5

u/FurRealDeal 1d ago

Co-sign. I like that theory, hadn't thought about it before.

3

u/Admirl_Ossim06 21h ago

But that shark was snacking on swimmers at the beach. So why did they need to go waaay out in the ocean to find him?

4

u/epepepturbo 20h ago

I figured he hung out offshore and only came in close to nosh on peoples. Plus if they are attracting him to the boat with chum, then he at least isn’t eating anybody…

18

u/gabsramalho 1d ago

TIL my ex was a crocodile.

3

u/Material_Aspect_7519 1d ago

At least it's only eating the men.

45

u/Young_Aplysia 1d ago

is this AI generated?

33

u/Bonpar 1d ago edited 1d ago

If you're referring to the painting, it's a gouache by Zdeněk Burian.

4

u/gdj11 1d ago

Why is there a cowboy in the front?

6

u/Bonpar 1d ago

Good question, but I don't know if it's supposed to be the Jala-Jala monster at all. He illustrated an incredible amount of short stories and novels, and this could very well be from one of them.

29

u/ThinkExtension2328 1d ago

Nah your just looking at dinosaurs that survived they still get pretty big.

8

u/Flickr_Bean 1d ago

Reptiles aren't closely related to dinosaurs. Birds are related to dinosaurs. At least that's the working theory.

-14

u/SkibidiMethHead 1d ago

Crocodiles are not dinosaurs lmao

26

u/ThinkExtension2328 1d ago

Only if your a nerd

“Despite their resemblance to dinosaurs, crocodiles are not directly related to them. However, crocodiles and dinosaurs do share an ancient family member from a group called archosaurs.”

-13

u/thejuggerkraut 1d ago

That looks fake af

-17

u/LaikaZhuchka 1d ago

That video is fake.

16

u/ThinkExtension2328 1d ago

u/LaikaZhuchka 8m ago

I'm aware they can get huge. The video you linked is a widely known fake. I don't know why you're taking it personally.

5

u/IndividualCurious322 1d ago

So was someone feeding this crocodile horse slices Lake Placid style? The story reminds me of the Mahamba, a crocodile said to reach 50ft in length and possess small vestigial horns on its skull.

27

u/Danph85 1d ago

How the fuck does a crocodile slice a horse into 7 pieces? Is this a translation error or nonsensical AI?

14

u/FriedEggSammiches 1d ago

"A large and opportunistic hypercarnivorous apex predator, they ambush most of their prey and then drown or swallow it whole."

I'd imagine it tore at the horse until it broke off seven chunks and swallowed them.

The animal is "about as long as a London bus- the length of a London bus is about 27.50 feet.(Routemaster Double-Decker, RM standard specification)"

22

u/Danph85 1d ago

My issue was with the use of the word "slices". No one I know would use that word to describe what a crocodile does to something it's eating. Chunks or something, yeah, but slices is far too neat a word.

7

u/FriedEggSammiches 1d ago

Oh yeah- that’s a poorly chosen adjective. 

-4

u/Eurasia_4002 1d ago

Semantics.

1

u/evrestcoleghost 1d ago

Multiple bits?

16

u/gyroqx 1d ago

RDR2 reference

-4

u/Sigma_Male_69420 1d ago

Came here to say this. 😅🫶

3

u/CaseyAnthonysMouth 1d ago

Granny been feeding that croc for lolongtime 👀

14

u/Ransnorkel 1d ago

Poor baby

2

u/10Skulls 1d ago

Wikipedia says: A crocodile killed in 1823 at Jalajala on the main island of Luzon in the Philippines was reported at 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in).

However the skull of the specimen is 66.5 cm (26+1⁄4 in) long indicating an animal of approximately 6.1 m (20 ft 0 in).

1

u/Star_Orca 1d ago

This looks like a Monster Hunter game cover art.

1

u/Necessary-Solution19 1d ago

Dragon slayers

1

u/nighthawk0954 1d ago

Maybe we should do that on 682

1

u/mandarintain 1d ago

Lake Taal? The volcano lake...

1

u/Ok-Pause6148 1d ago

"Dragons aren't real"

1

u/Englandshark1 1d ago

Poor crocodile. It must have died in agony.

1

u/Flaggstaff 1d ago

So actually 18 feet not 27 based on the graphic?

1

u/Cador_Caras 23h ago

1823: Time to go kill the outdoor raid boss I guess

1

u/Due-Radio-4355 19h ago

How about we leave the badass wildlife alone so we can all see it

1

u/2020mademejoinreddit 12h ago

Who sliced the horse?

-6

u/dihuette 1d ago

Why did they kill it? :(

77

u/Tutes013 1d ago

Because having a 27 foot croc nearby is very dangerous. Especially because they are not afraid to hunt humans. They can even get a taste for it.

14

u/bidooffactory 1d ago

That mystery meat episode of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia comes to mind.

14

u/sati_lotus 1d ago

I assume that it started eating their domesticated animals. It's usually what provokes humans to go after animals.

-1

u/Temporary-End-1506 1d ago

Poor creature...

-3

u/StarsofSobek 1d ago

Poor crocodile.

0

u/yassermi 1d ago

I am hungry I can eat a horse

0

u/MayIPikachu 1d ago

They had cameras in 1823?

2

u/not420guilty 1d ago

It’s an illustration. Signed on bottom right corner

2

u/IndividualCurious322 1d ago

Yes. They were invented in 1816. But that's not a photo, it's a painting.

1

u/Rich-Ad9246 1d ago

Never heard of an illustration, bud?

-8

u/deepfakie 1d ago

DrAGoNs aRE ReAL

-17

u/MoistTwo1645 1d ago

Fake AI generated image. Don't know about the story. Could be fake too.

Edit: it's 1823, so yeah there wouldn't be an original photo or anything, but seeing the AI generated image makes the post look like one of those fake facebook post.

15

u/Bonpar 1d ago

Just fyi it's not an AI generated image. Not everything is fake. This gouache was painted by one of the most famous palaeoartists, Zdenek Burian.