Australian authorities said Thursday that they were investigating videos posted online by a U.S. influencer that show him capturing and restraining wild crocodiles in the state of Queensland.
“These actions are extremely dangerous and illegal, and we are actively exploring strong compliance action including fines to deter any person from this type of behavior,” the Queensland environment department said in a statement.
Mike Holston, also known as The Real Tarzann, posted two videos in recent days to his 15 million followers on Instagram, including one in which he appears to wrestle a crocodile and ends up on top.
In the first video, Holston enters shallow water from a boat and runs toward what he says is a freshwater crocodile before jumping on it and wrestling with it. Blood is visible on his left arm as he grabs the neck of the crocodile, which can be heard calling out.
“This is what dreams are made of,” Holston says in the video while holding the reptile, admitting that he has wanted to come to Australia since a young age to see crocodiles up close.
Since being posted on Sept. 5, the video has garnered over a million likes and been viewed more than 33 million times.
In the second video, Holston is seen in marshland chasing after what he says is a juvenile saltwater crocodile. He grabs the reptile rather easily, which Queensland officials said was “completely uncharacteristic,” citing crocodile experts.
“In normal conditions, such an animal would writhe and thrash about wildly, seeking to escape,” they said.
Both animals can be seen being released in the videos, which appear to have been filmed at Lockhart River on the Cape York Peninsula.
Holston did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
In a comment on the video of the saltwater crocodile, he said he did not encourage anyone to try to recreate what he was doing, adding that the animal was “released after a few close looks and photos were taken.”
Not everyone, however, is buying that explanation.
Conservationist Bob Irwin, father of the late Steve Irwin, Australia’s famous “Crocodile Hunter,” called for greater penalties for social media posts such as Holston’s, which he said “can have disastrous consequences for both people and wildlife.”
“People visiting our country need to respect our wildlife, or they need to be booted out the door,” Irwin said in a statement that appeared in Australian media.
Both saltwater and freshwater crocodiles can range from about six to 13 feet long, with male saltwaters weighing as much as 660 pounds and male freshwaters weighing as much as 132 pounds, according to the Queensland environment department.
The maximum penalty for interfering with a crocodile is a fine of about 37,500 Australian dollars ($25,000).
Holston is not the first U.S. influencer to have a run-in with Australian authorities over wildlife content. In March, a self-described “outdoor enthusiast” left the country after she was widely criticized for filming herself snatching a baby wombat from its distraught mother, including by the Australian prime minister.
