[5][6] However, her promotional materials claimed that Koringa was born in Rajisthan, India, having been orphaned at the age of three and raised by fakirs who had taught her their skills.
[10] Her acts included four female assistants in Eastern-style costumes, five crocodiles, two pythons, two boa constrictors, and having a concrete block broken on her stomach.
[1][2][6] Koringa act sometimes including pushing pins and needles into her skin and hanging by her throat from the sharp edge of a sword.
[7] Her signature act was hypnotizing the eight-foot-long crocodile named Churchill and standing on his head while wearing several snakes around her neck.
[14] By 1942, Koringa had left the Mills Circus and was headlining with a vaudeville tour..[15] In February 1942, she lost control of her largest crocodile and it dived into the orchestra pit at the Palace in Preston.
[1][2] In July 1955, Koringa was bitten by one of her crocodiles while working as an animal tamer on the film An Alligator Named Daisy at Pinewood Studios, requiring her to be hospitalized.
[11] South African writer Finuala Dowling's 2022 novel The Man Who Loved Crocodile Tamers has Koringa as a central character.