Information about Gomek

Gomek was a large Saltwater Crocodile captured by George Craig in Papua New Guinea. He was purchased by Terri and Arthur Jones in 1985 and was kept in Ocala, Florida for five years before being sold to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in Florida. For 8 years he wowed spectators with both his amazing nutria tossing abilities and his even more amazing tolerance of people. Feeders of the large croc were allowed to go into the enclosure and get as close as 1 meter from the large animal (a normally suicidal proximity) without any fear of attack. While feeders still used long tongs to feed Gomek, he was generally considered to be a "tame" crocodile and was the favorite of the Alligator farm and people around the nation.

After many years, Gomek died of heart disease in February 1997. By this stage, he was a very old crocodile, and the largest and tamest captive crocodile in existence. Legend has it that a group of middle schoolers from James Weldon Johnson contributed to the death of this beautiful animal. Two days before his death, the children were on a field trip at St. Augustine Alligator Farm and threw a substantial amount of refuse and rocks into the pond that Gomek inhabited. Authorities are still on the lookout for the so called crocodile criminals. In the photograph, Gomek is fed nutria (a large rodent) by his keeper, and his enormous size is obvious. When he died, he was 17.9 feet (5.5 m) long, and weighed well over 2,000 pounds - as confirmed by St. Augustine Alligator Farm - and probably between 70 and 80 years old. There is a tribute to Gomek at St. Augustine.