Influencer forced to issue a grovelling apology after she fed a crocodile an entire roast chicken in Far North Queensland: ‘I had no idea’

An influencer who boasted about feeding an entire roast chicken to a crocodile has been forced to apologise after she was roasted online for the dangerous act. 

Jayli Bonow is facing more than $26,000 in fines because of a now-deleted video where she claimed to have fed a saltwater crocodile on the banks of the Russell River near Babinda, in Far North Queensland, on Wednesday. 

In the 46-second video Ms Bonow sat on the bank looking out at the crocodile, known as Clyde by locals, before telling her followers she ‘thought it’d be a good idea to get a whole chook and feed it to one of the crocs’. 

‘Have a look at him, he is just feeding on that chook and absolutely lovin’ it,’ she said.

Ms Bonow pre-emptively addressed any criticism she expected the video to attract. 

‘I know there are going to be some heroes who come on here and go, “You can’t go anywhere near the crocodile”,’ she said.

‘Well, I didn’t go anywhere near it and I stayed well away from the banks so shut your f***ing holes up.’

Ms Bonow’s video caught the attention of the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation (DESI) which confirmed the video was under investigation on Friday.  

‘Deliberately feeding crocodiles can pose a huge risk to other visitors and increase the chances of an attack,’ a DESI spokesman said.

‘That is why penalties were recently increased for unlawful behaviour that places lives at risk… [and] behaviour that portrays, promotes or encourages people to feed them is totally irresponsible.’

In September the maximum court-imposed penalty for deliberately feeding or disturbing crocodiles was raised from $6,452 to $26,615 in Queensland. 

Ms Bonow, from Western Australia, has replaced her original video with an apology in which she claimed her actions had bought awareness to the issue. 

‘So, yesterday I thought it would be a good idea to feed a saltwater crocodile,’ she said on Thursday. 

‘Now, this is stupid in any case for the obvious reasons that it is so dangerous to feed saltwater crocs.

‘I also didn’t realise that feeding crocodiles in Australia is illegal and that is why I want to bring awareness to the subject.’

She described her decision to feed the crocodile as a ‘silly mistake’. 

‘I was so uneducated yesterday and had no idea that feeding crocodiles was illegal.  Now I know that feeding the crocs is detrimental to them and the public safety because it changes the behaviour of the crocs,’ she said. 

‘Had I known that yesterday I wouldn’t have made the silly mistake.’

Local Member for Barron River Craig Crawford said influencer should be using their audience to spread common sense.

‘Feeding crocs is not only stupid but illegal and the fines are in the thousands, even pretending or purporting to do it sends a stupid message to others,’ he said.

‘As Far Northerners, irrespective of people’s opinions on crocs, everyone would agree that feeding them changes their behaviour and will make them hang around closer, stalk the area and wait for humans.

The Queensland government was earlier this year forced to issued a warning after a video surfaced of a large crocodile eating a small, deceased shark in Rockhampton in February. 

Wildlife officer Alexander Peters said he would be ‘extremely disappointed if people were deliberately feeding crocodiles to generate likes on social media’. 

‘Deliberately feeding of crocodiles is extremely foolish and dangerous behaviour, as it can lead to the animals learning to associate people with food,’ he said. 

‘Previous incidents have shown when a crocodile has been fed, it starts to approach other people for food, or it will hang around an area where they have previously been fed waiting for an easy meal.

‘This can put unsuspecting people at risk and leave the animal vulnerable to being removed from the wild.’

Anyone with information about the deliberate feeding of crocodiles is encouraged to call DESI on 1300 130 372.