It happens in Australia and it happens elsewhere. It happens in the Solomon Islands and in Timor-Leste. And in other places where the big crocodile lives and kills.
The Solomon Islands.
What crocodile?
What is happening in the Solomon Islands?
Big crocodile kills boys, one six, and one fourteen years of age.
O.K. O.K……………….It is not Darwin N.T.
No, it is not Australia, but read on.
“At least five people are known to have been killed by saltwater crocodiles this year alone. The latest was a 14-year-old boy, who was attacked while diving for fish with his friends in August, while a six-year-old was killed in late May as he swam in a creek.”
And………………………….
“Over the last 10 years, there appears to be a large number of attacks on people, so it is really important to manage this species.”
Does it matter that it is in the Solomons?
SOURCE: ABC NEWS
It is happening here too!
And if we have a problem with rogue crocodiles?
We accept a certain number of times where the crocodile kills and then…………………..
We simply export the problem!
Let someone else have the problem that we created. How did we create the problem? By allowing the crocodile population to increase without check or control.
Do you think that I am wrong? Read more.
Timor-Leste
“Crocodile attack rates have surged more than 20-fold in Timor-Leste in less than a decade — and experts think crocs from the Northern Territory (NT) could be to blame.
Key points:
Experts believe NT crocodiles may be behind surging attack rates in Timor-Leste
They hope DNA sampling of the crocodiles will soon test the theory
Reverence of crocodiles is anchored in a Timor-Leste creation myth, complicating management of the situation”
SOURCE: GOOGLE MAPS.
Big crocodiles – thoughts on immigration and migration.
You see, people who might know something about this have looked at the issue and come to a conclusion. Sure, there are always others who might say different, but I reckon these guys are right.
Quote:
“Researchers Sebastian Brackhane and Grahame Webb published a research paper earlier this year, outlining why they think Territory crocs are swimming more than 600 kilometres and attacking one person a month in the tiny island nation.”
And further Grahame Webb said:
“A successful conservation [approach] for crocodiles in one country, basically a developed country, has had serious ramifications on the rate of fatalities on another country, a developing country.”
SOURCE: ABC NEWS.
Now, keeping this short and sharp:
“A plausible explanation, consistent with traditional knowledge in Timor-Leste, is that the influx of large crocodiles attacking people are migrants from Australia,” the article said.
Asked why he is convinced the crocodiles are coming from the NT rather than other areas, Dr Webb pointed to a number of factors.
“Firstly, crocs in the Northern Territory are just abundant compared to elsewhere,” he said.
Secondly, he said crocodiles had been seen on oil rigs between the NT and Timor-Leste.
Dr Webb also said a large percentage of crocodiles were known to disperse out of Territory rivers and never return, pointing to broad migration.
The only way for the crocodile population to increase so quickly in Timor-Leste would be if they were travelling there from other areas, he said.
Dr Webb said he does not know why a crocodile would decide to swim the Timor Sea, but that it is “absolutely” possible — and they could do it in around 15 days.
Now it is true that another expert, Dr Britton, has a different view.
He has also researched crocodiles in Timor-Leste, and he “is sceptical of the theory because he believes they prefer to migrate via the shortest possible routes”.
Much easier to island hop?
And he postulates that “They could be coming from West Papua, Indonesia or even up from Queensland.”
Well, I for one agree with Grahame Webb and his fellow-authors. The saltwater crocodiles could be coming from anywhere. They might prefer to island hop. They could be coming from West Papua, sure, and if they did, is it not possible that they came to West Papua from Australia?
I reckon they are Aussie salties!
Big crocodiles and Wildlife Management.
If you want to know more, then turn to:
Have a read of the “Featured Article”.
When conservation becomes dangerous: Human‐Crocodile conflict in Timor‐Leste
First published: 05 June 2018
SOURCE: https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jwmg.21497
The abstract tells us:
The population of saltwater crocodiles in each of the two countries was significantly depleted, meaning that we killed them off. Now they are returning the favour.
Remember that we are talking Australia and Timor‐Leste, where, in one case, that of Australia, the population recovered rapidly after we brought in protection some 50 years ago.
Without hunting, the population of saltwater crocodiles in Australian has (in my view) exploded and I say that there could be 150,000 more crocs in the N.T. than there were in the early 70’s.
There are those that think we can, and should, live with the situation where a crocodile kills a human every now and then.
OK. They think that!
So it is not a lot of people, and the ones that were killed are dead. They cannot complain.
And, after all, it isn’t me, is it?
I think we have found ourselves in deep water, with the “odd” crocodile murder, and here I mean the beast murdering the man, rather than the other way round.
But we have exported the problem.
While researching for my novel “The Sixth Season, Gudjewg”, I found evidence (mainly anecdotal evidence) of saltwater crocodiles travelling great distances in the sea. I incorporated this idea in my book, with the villain travelling to PNG.
Of course they can travel across an ocean!
Now look what is happening to our neighbours.
Quoting the abstract:
“In 1996–2006, 0.55 attacks/year were reported in Timor‐Leste. By 2007–2014, 9 years later, a 23‐fold increase had occurred (13 attacks/year).”
A 23 fold increase in attacks!
Is that not significant? And how has this come about?
There has been a “dramatic increase in crocodile attacks”.
The conclusion reached by experts is as follows:
“A plausible explanation, consistent with traditional knowledge in Timor‐Leste, is that the influx of large crocodiles attacking people are migrants from Australia. We examined this possibility from available sources. Within Australia crocodiles have recovered since protection and they regularly invade adjacent habitats, such as Darwin harbor, where they are removed to prevent attacks on people.”
And……….
“Saltwater crocodiles have been sighted at oil rigs, in the open ocean, moving between northern Australia and the south coast of Timor‐Leste.”
And………….
“The likelihood of crocodiles migrating from Australia to Timor‐Leste raises obvious conservation, moral, and ethical dilemmas when conserving a large dangerous predator in one country to increase abundance results in dispersal to another country, where the predator attacks and kills people”.
© 2018 The Wildlife Society.
Sebastian Brackhane, Grahame Webb, Flaminio M. E. Xavier, Josh Trindade, Marcal Gusmao and Peter Pechacek, Crocodile management in Timor-Leste: Drawing upon traditional ecological knowledge and cultural beliefs, Human Dimensions of Wildlife, 10.1080/10871209.2019.1614240, (1-18), (2019).
So, at the end of the day, assuming that the above is the truth, what do we do about it?