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A BRAVE Polish immigrant shot to stardom after she blasted a mammoth 28ft crocodile with a single shot to save her daughter’s life.
Krystyna Pawlowski became one of the most globally celebrated female sharpshooters of a generation after she easily took down the feared croc after decades of it causing carnage for locals.
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Known as Krys, the skilled markswoman shocked the world when she eliminated the beast with a precise bullet – all while sporting red lipstick and bright nails.
Hunters were reportedly left in awe of the new croc killer with them amazed that a 5ft 4in blonde mum-of-three pulled off such a kill.
Krys, then 30, is said to have been on the banks of the Norman River in Queensland, Australia with her young children when she spotted the terrifying creature.
In a split second decision, Krys grabbed for her rifle and aimed at the giant crocodile which was lurking around her five-year-old daughter Barbara.
A single bullet pierced the seemingly impenetrable reptile’s scales underneath its eye – stopping it dead in its tracks.
Images of the fallen saltwater crocodile quickly shot Krys to a global icon back in 1957.
The 28ft monster was the biggest ever reptile killed or even just captured in Australia – a record that still remains to this day.
Guinness Book of Records even honoured the impressive kill transforming Krys into a global celebrity.
The mother soon gained the appropriate nickname of “One Shot” for her unrivalled skills with a rifle.
The legend surrounding her also claims she only ever missed three shots across her 15-year hunting life.
She was able to hit a moving crocodile with ease and skinned her finds faster than anyone before her.
By the end of her career, Krys had reportedly killed over 10,000 reptiles alongside with her proud husband Ron.
Despite her long and successful hunting period, Krys’s first time seeing a croc being shot up close was in 1955.
In similar chilling fashion to the iconic encounter years later, a 12ft creature is said to have started creeping up on a then three-year-old Barbara.
Krys’s son George Pawlowski spoke to Daily Mail Australia on the topic, saying: “My brother came out and saw it and yelled ‘Barbara, crocodile’ and my father grabbed a rifle and shot it between the eyes.”
Ron – also a Polish immigrant – was a skilled kangaroo shooter when he moved to Australia in 1949.
My mother was something else. She’d be up to her waist in thick mud but she always had lipstick on and the red nail polish
George Pawlowski
With money tight and a dead crocodile on their front garden, Ron and Krys took the animal to be skinned.
They made a £10 profit and realised the life-saving shot could become a career.
Both went on to become famous as they toured around as one of the most impressive couples in Australia.
George continued: “My parents were both legends in their own right, but my mother was something else.
“She’d be up to her waist in thick mud but she always had lipstick on and the red nail polish.
“I think it contrasted with what she did for a living, and made her feel a bit different.”
The world record crocodile kill went on to be forever immortalised with a life-sized replica being made.
It was even given the nickname of “Krys the Savannah King” in honour of Krystina.
The statue is now a popular tourist destination and is visited by thousands each year travelling through Normanton, Queensland.
It sits alongside a plaque which says the date, location and size of the croc as well as the name of Krystina and some detail about the kill.
I would never shoot one like that again. It was such a magnificent specimen
Krystyna Pawlowski
Krys would later reveal her regret over her famous shot with another crocodile of a similar size never being found again
She said: “I would never shoot one like that again. It was such a magnificent specimen.”
Tragically, all the pictures the Pawlowski’s snapped up of the crocodile were lost forever after they were washed away in a flood in 1974.
The family would later become at the heart of Australia’s movement towards reptile conservation efforts.
They set up a sanctuary to study crocodile habits from breeding to feeding.
With Australia’s first ever experimental crocodile farm being established by Ron where he helped to breed the reptiles by collecting their eggs in the wild.
The pair would travel the world following their retirement from hunting with Ron becoming a filmmaker and Krys a taxidermist.
Krys died in March 2004 at 77 years old with Ron still living in Australia.
The saltwater crocodile
SALTWATER crocodiles are the largest crocodile species in the world, and the largest living reptile in the world.
Male saltwater crocodiles have been recorded at lengths of 23 feet with Krys the Savannah King being the big exception.
Females are much smaller, growing to be about 10 feet long.
The current largest crocodile in the world is called Cassius (pictured) and he resides in a wildlife park in Queensland, Australia.
Saltwater crocodiles communicate using several sounds, including barking, hissing, growling and chirps.
They are also one of the oldest creatures to walk the planet after first appearing over 240 million years ago, during the time of the dinosaurs.
While others have evolved into different shapes and forms, the crocs have stuck to the same structure for the last 200 million years.
Saltwater crocodiles breed during the wet season, and females can lay up to 50 eggs, which they build nests for along the nearby river banks.
The eggs incubate for around three months before hatching but only one per cent of hatchlings survive into adulthood
Other species of crocodile include the Nile Crocodile, American Crocodile, Freshwater Crocodile, Gharial Crocodile and the American Alligator.
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