Update: Crocodile Attack

Police have found human remains consistant with a crocodile attack 45o metres downstream of where the girl went missing. They have now called off the search.

Crocodile Attack

There is great concern that a young girl may have been taken by a crocodile in Darwin's rural area. She was reported missing yesterday afternoon and had been swimming with friends at Black Jungle Swamp in Lambells Lagoon. This is area not very far from where we live in the rural area. A search is still under way at present but her friends reported seeing a head of a crocodile and a tail sweeping thru the water, just after she went under the water surface.

Palumpa croc school

A week ago, reports started coming in that children at the remote community of Palumpa in the Top End have had to brave crocodiles while walking across a flooded causeway in order to get to school. They started using a 4WD troopcarrier to ferry the kids across and were apparently attacked by 5 metre monster croc whilst crossing.

When asked about this situation the Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson said no children were "unnecessarily exposed to crocodiles" and dismissed the story as a "great territory yarn".

Despite this, rangers caught three crocodiles from the billabong, and then shot a 4.5m croc about 20 metres away from a house at the community. Maybe he was on his way to the school?

Katherine crocs

Yesterday there was a news report from CLP member from Katherine Willem Westra van Holthe that crocodile management wasn't happening in 2008 for that region. He suggested that this was the reason for an increase in crocodiles being caught in the popular tourist region of Nitmiluk National Park. He said that staff were not replaced after the more experienced crocodile ranger had left the service (who now runs the local butchers in the town!) and traps were not baited and left hanging in trees. Katherine rangers apparently had to travel to Darwin in their own time to receive training from the specialist croc team.

The crocodile management plan for Katherine has an exclusion zone of about 20 kms of the river close to town as well as the gorge region. Regular spotlight surveys of these regions are supposed to be carried out and traps set in the deep billabongs where the salties are usually found.
This Saltwater Crocodile exclusion zone is similar to the one for Darwin Harbour, the difference being that a lot more people swim in the Katherine River than in the Darwin Harbour, however they do catch a lot more crocs over a much larger area in Darwin.

Later on a spokesperson from the department stated that they don't alway's bait the traps in the river because they end up catching too many freshwater crocodiles.

Croc safety when fishing

A little while ago we put out a media release with Kakadu National Park regarding crocodile safety awareness when reviving and releasing fish from the waters edge. Eventually the local paper the NT News ran the story about a month later (its most likely they were waiting for the right time to put a croc pic on the front page). A spectacular lunging shot of our Saltwater Crocodile named Smaug featured on the front page, this photo was also taken by Darwin's Lord Mayor Graeme Sawyer.

The issue of crocodile safety when fishing in north Australia isn't something that we normally worry about because most fisherman and locals are pretty sensible when it comes to crocodiles, but on occasions you see some really crazy stuff. I have also heard first hand stories of people having caught barramundi being snapped out of their hands by a crocodile right at the edge of the boat.
You would probably remember the photo of the Israeli fisherman jumping back from a croc lunge after taunting it to come closer. Follow the link above to read the story or read the comments on it. Comments on stories are often an interesting way of gauging public opinions and reactions.
Also have a look at this blog from ABC local radio in Darwin where you can see people fishing waist deep in water where several large crocodiles were caught.

Pygmy Crocs

There has been a fair bit of media attention placed on the Pygmy Freshwater Crocodile research project we have been involved in.
If you have a look at this site, you can watch a video covering the story, it also contains a lot of footage of pygmy crocs and our research work that we filmed whilst visiting the escarpment country of Bullo River late last year.

Its Back!

Ok, after an unusually long break from blog updates I'm now back and ready to report on crocodile stories.
So many stories to talk about, so much has been happening in the world of crocs, where do you start?
Crocodile issues are certainly very political these days in Queensland and more so of late, with the recent death of a five year old Jeremy Doble on the Daintree River. more on this later...
Also more Crocodiles moving down the East Coast of Queensland into populated areas...
In the Northern Territory there has also been a number of crocodile stories, with kids crossing flooded creeks to get to school and they are also finding more crocodiles in the Katherine Gorge.