LEAPING on the back of a 14ft crocodile and clamping its jaws shut with his bare hands - this is where Matt Wright, the outback wrangler, feels at home.

But sat in a gleaming hotel room in London’s posh district of Kensington, the Aussie is out of his comfort zone.

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He would rather be back in the swamps facing off against a prehistoric beast.

Matt, 38, said: “I get a bit of cabin fever when I’m in a city. I think about all the boys over in the outback having a hell of an adventure.

“I could never live in London - Hyde park not big enough for me I need to land my chopper somewhere.

“I would take wrestling a crocodile over a desk job any day of the week.”

Matt is the star of the show Monster Croc Wrangler, which sees him fly his helicopter around Northern Australia on his mission to relocate crocodiles.

He has been dubbed the new Steve Irwin, or a real-life Crocodile Dundee.

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The 38-year-old spends his days stalking waist deep in muggy swamplands or flying overhead.

Matt is called in by landowners to move crocs around the area for conservation reasons.

He said: “In Australia, we used to shoot them for their skin, the leather.

“But the industry wasn’t sustainable. So they started farming.

“We try and move some of the females around, so they can breed.

“We also move problematic big crocs to parks, where they can live out their life in 6-700 acres swampland. Rather than potentially killing people.”

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The crocodile population in Australia was as low as 4,000 forty years ago, but thanks to various conservation efforts it now stands at 130,000.

Matt said: “It is the most successful conservation model in the world.

“There is a public outcry saying we have too many crocs now. Just stay out the water holes in Northern Australia where there are crocodiles.”

It’s a job he was born to do, as a youngster Matt would fill his home with poisonous wildlife - despite his mother’s best efforts.

On one occasion Matt brought home a bucket full of brown snakes - considered to be the world's second-most venomous land snake.

He told his mother the bucket only contained lizards and the container was brought into the house.

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Matt said: “I had been collecting brown snakes with my mate. It had been a big day, when Mum took me home I fell asleep in the car.

“She carried me to bed and put the bucket - of what she thought was lizards - down.

“She was up late at night, doing the washing and sure enough she hears the bucket fall over and out come these snakes slithering around the house.

“She managed to capture one, the biggest one, a couple of foot long and got it into a bucket.

“She came to wake me up, she was going berserk, but I was dead to the world.

“For the next two weeks everyone was walking on eggshells as they went round the house, trying not to tread on a deadly snake.

“Eventually I got the last one two weeks later - it came running up the passageway to the loo.”

In the end his mother bought Matt an eight foot carpet python, on the condition he stop bringing poisonous snakes in the house.

Matt said: “That lasted a few months, then I was back into it.”

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Growing up Matt spent all his days out in the bush finding and playing with animals, even bringing giant fruit bats into school.

The young animal-lover was keen on a career with wildlife, but promised his mother he would finish school.

Matt took his final exams, but never waited around long enough to receive his test results.

He said: “I have no idea what score I got. I don’t know to this day, I finished and I left.

“I knew I had to work, I had to make money. But I loved animals, the outback and the ocean.”

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Eventually he started working as a wrangler, catching crocs, moving crocs, finding crocodile eggs.

He also helps to move cattle and other livestock across the plains in Northern Australia.

He said: “You can’t take a course to learn to do what I do, it’s just life. It was all hands on, all out in the fields learning. I listened to people.”

Work begins for Matt and his team when they get a call from a landowner reporting a problem croc on their property.

The team then load up the chopper and fly over. Once on the ground they use tracking techniques to find the crocs habitat, before setting a trap.

Matt said: “It’s no different than going fishing for the weekend.

“Nine times out of ten there is a dead cow or a horse floating in the water - which is a dead giveaway. We’ll drag the food out, or use it as bait, then set up a trap.”

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When the crocodile is trapped the team move in. They must psyche themselves up before attempting to hook a rope around the animal’s upper jaws.

When the croc is lassoed the team then try to tape its jaws shut - after placing a hessian sack over its eyes.

They have to be careful not to get in the way of the powerful tail and snapping jaws.

Matt said: “There are periods where you’re scared, especially if you’re in deep water and have to catch a croc.

“That’s unfamiliar territory for a lot of people. He’s got the full advantage a big croc on the ground has no thrust with the tail - he can’t launch out at you. If he does that in water you are in for a world of hurt.

“If it’s a big croc and we have nowhere to tie it I will more than likely go in.

“You can attack it from the front, once you get the hessian on the eyes, you close that jaw up and get the first few wraps on.

“Once his head’s tied up and taped up he’s still quite dangerous- because of the tail. I had a 14ft croc clip me on the back of the legs and flip me 6ft up in the air, I landed on my head and had to get a CAT scan.

“The head itself is solid bone. It will snap your leg clean in half if it hits you with it. If his head hits your head, it will kill you straight away.”

Matt claims to have never suffered any serious injuries.

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He said: “I’ve still got both my hands. Both my feet, both my legs, arms.

“I’ve been knocked around a bit, flipped up in the air when catching bulls, had a few horns through me.

“Crocodiles have bitten me a few times, I had a tooth come through the side of my chin when a croc with his nose taped up threw his head and hooked me under the chin.

“I’ve broken my tib, my fib, my ankle, my foot and a couple of toes. Usually I’m just knocked unconscious.

“Nothing serious, I still have all my limbs.”

Colleagues of Matt’s have been less ‘lucky’, one friend of the crocodile wrestler was bitten across the chest by one of the monstrous lizards.

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Matt said: “A crocodile launched itself at my mate and grabbed him by the chest.

“We took him down to the vets clinic and got him sewn up. He was alright but had a big tooth mark through his pectoral.”

Despite his grappling with the dangerous brutes, Matt still ranks them among his favourite animals. He even has a 17ft long crocodile called Tripod living in his back garden - so called because he has only three legs.

He said: “Some of the other crocs in a park were getting killed by Tripod, so I pulled him out and took him home.

“I went in at night to get him, there are a thousand crocs in the area walking around. Everywhere you looked there was a croc.

“I found him there at a waterhole by himself. I just threw a rope round him, then it was a game on.

“He was pulling me back into the water, there were only two of us next to this ton animal.

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“Eventually we got a needle in him, calmed him down and took him to my operation - his new home.

“He’s happy there. Occasionally he gets out into the lawn and I have to wrestle him back.”

Matt transported the animal from a nature reserve to come and live with himself and wife Kaia. The couple also live with three dingos, a dog and countless snakes.

He met his wife after landing his helicopter on a beach where she was hanging out with friends.

The pair got married two months ago in Dunsborough, south of Perth. Matt and Kaia performed the dance from the film Dirty Dancing at the reception.

Matt said: “We nailed the lift. It was the only thing I stressed about for the whole wedding.”

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The strapping Aussie keeps fit by going for a run with his wife, but sees little point in hitting the gym.

He said: “I hate wasting time, why would I go to the gym to pretend to chop wood? I can do the same thing in the yard, put an axe in my hand do something useful.”

The croc hunter is often likened to Steve Irwin, another Australian famed for his love of wildlife and illuminating television shows.

Steve tragically died in 2006 when he was attacked by a stingray.

Matt said: “I don’t see a comparison. Steve was one of a kind, I never had the privilege of meeting him.

“We both have a passion for animals and conservation - we need to look after our last resource Earth.

“Even to be regarded in the same circle as Steve Irwin is a huge honour.

“Other people think I’m more like Crocodile Dundee - a great movie.

“There is no one else to compare me to I guess.”

Watch Monster Croc Wrangler on Monday nights at 8pm on Nat Geo WILD.

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