But far from being scared, Mr Korostelev was delighted with his deadly encounter.

He said: 'It was not an accidental meeting, the main purpose of my trip was to capture an American crocodile in its natural environment.

'I met this crocodile underwater face to face. When it swam close to me, the only thought I had was about how great it was that I could take great pictures.

'It nuzzled into the camera several times and sometimes it touched me with its tail.'

"We were supposed to come out on a Friday the first time," said Swanson. "We ended up being delayed by a day because he was burying his aunt, who had just died from breast cancer the day before. When he found out that we were out here to collect these snakes to try to use them for cancer research, it changed their whole outlook on it."

It changed the Hubbards' outlook so much that they plan to turn part of their property into a conservation area so people can view the creatures in their natural habitat. They're hoping to open up the eco-tourist venture by sometime next summer.

“Firefighters conducted a search but found that the house was unoccupied at the time of the fire,” Lt. Carol Jones, a fire department spokeswoman, said in a news release issued Tuesday morning. “A family member who later arrived explained that the owners were actually out of state and then inquired about the family pet.”

Firefighters happily reunited the daughter with the family’s pet frog, who appeared unharmed, Jones said.

Lonsesome George was the last of the Pinta Island giant tortoises on the Galapagos. Due to human intervention in the ecosystem his entire species whittled down to just George. Since his discovery he'd been well cared for and revered by scientists across the board. Several attempts at mating George just never panned out and he died from old age. Within 24 hours of his death he was frozen with the decision to taxidermy him.

The first step of the process was to get George to the museum for evaluation. This involved huge amounts of coordination and paperwork to get him to NY through customs and into the States safely intact. They worked against the clock to minimize any types of freezer burn or damage done to George that could happen when kept frozen too long or transported poorly. After the museum assessed George, he was brought to the Wildlife Preservations taxidermy studio in Woodland Park, NJ.

George Dante, president of Wildlife Preservations and an expert in the field of taxidermy, lead the effort in bringing George's likeness back into existence. Since there were no other animals of his species to base him off of, extensive amounts of research went into making sure the process was as accurate as possible.

George captured Cassius in 1987 from a river in the Northern Territory, where he was notorious for his huge size - and was under threat of being hunted down and killed by the local population.

Cassisus, who is missing his front left leg and tip of his tail due to vicious fights, was deemed a massive threat to humans after attacking boats.

So George set about capturing him to save his life, and bringing him to live in his sanctuary.