Gigantic crocodile: is this incredible photo real or fake?

You can see in the video: Huge crocodile – is Maximo really as big as in this photo?

This photo takes your breath away: a huge crocodile lies in front of a man. It appears almost tiny next to the reptile.

The strange photo is used as a teaser image for numerous online videos and articles.

But what about the incredible picture? Is the recording real?

The picture of the huge crocodile is a fake.

The man in the foreground was added to the shot afterwards to make the animal appear even more powerful.

A reverse search of the image leads to the US Highway Administration website, which provides the original full resolution photo.

The name of the file is: Maximo_AlligatorFarm

These keywords lead to the website of an alligator farm in Florida. There is actually a huge reptile here called Maximo.

The huge estuarine crocodile is 4.6 meters long. A photo that Maximo shows with an animal keeper makes it clear that the animal is large, but nowhere near as large as in the manipulated picture.

But is Maximo really the animal in the fake photo?

A backward search of the original image confirms the suspicion. The photo is also used in the Wikipedia article on Saltwater Crocodiles. The description text is stored: “This is Maximo, a crocodile more than 15 feet tall on the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.”

The case makes it clear: Exaggerated and manipulated photos are used to lure users to videos and articles and thus generate clicks. This is how a large crocodile becomes a larger than life monster.

How do we examine videos for manipulation in the editorial office? It is important to take a look at the details. The individual frames of a video often reveal whether a video has been edited. We take a close look at each picture and enlarge individual sections. Indications of a fake are, for example: lack of motion blur, unnatural shadows or cutting errors. At stern, the general rule is: Seriousness over speed. We always double-check facts and material carefully before we publish them. To do this, we work with the cross-editorial “Verification Team” together with RTL, NTV, RTL2, and Radio NRW.

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