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SYDNEY - He was a three-legged, cold-blooded hellion with a fan club following, but it was high water that finally spelled the end for the NSW Central Coast's most infamous reptile.
Eric the crocodile died at 5.30pm AEST on Saturday from a systemic infection, which was exacerbated as staff couldn't treat him during recent storms.
At 60 years, five metres in length and weighing 700kg, Eric was the largest crocodile in NSW and the star of Gosford's Australian Reptile Park at the time of his death.
Handed over to the park in 1989, Eric was labelled a "problem crocodile" from an early age.
Eric bit off the heads of two female crocodiles with whom he was supposed to mate and lost his right rear leg in a duel with a fellow croc.
However, he mellowed with age and was a sedate star attraction with a fan club of some 10,000 members across the world by the time he died.
- AAP
