- The leader of Australia’s Northern Territory says crocodile numbers must be controlled after a 12-year-old girl was mauled to death by a crocodile.
- Since the 1970s, thanks to protection measures, northern Australia’s crocodile population has soared from 3,000 to 100,000.
- The recent death of a crocodile near Palungpa has brought attention to crocodile management.
Australia’s Northern Territory leader says the state’s crocodile population must be maintained or reduced and cannot be allowed to outnumber the human population, following the death of a 12-year-old girl while swimming.
Since being made a protected species under Australian law in the 1970s, crocodile populations have exploded in Australia’s tropical north, from 3,000 when hunting was banned to 100,000 today. The Northern Territory has a population of just over 250,000.
The girl’s death comes weeks after the territory approved a 10-year crocodile management plan that allows targeted culling at popular swimming beaches but stops short of resuming mass culling. Crocodiles are considered a danger in most of the Northern Territory’s waterways, but crocodile tourism and farming are major economic drivers.
12-year-old Australian girl dies after being attacked by crocodile while swimming in stream
“We cannot allow crocodiles to outnumber the human population in the Northern Territory. We need to get the crocodile population under control,” Premier Eva Lawler told reporters on Thursday, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The body of a 12-year-old girl who was mauled to death by a crocodile was found in Australia’s Northern Territory on Thursday. (AP/Getty Images)
In this week’s deadly attack, the girl went missing while swimming in a stream near the Palumpa Aboriginal community, southwest of the territory’s capital, Darwin. After an extensive search, her body was found in the river system where she went missing, with injuries confirmed to be those of a crocodile attack.
In the Northern Territory, 15 people were killed by crocodiles between 2005 and 2014, with a further two deaths in 2018. The proportion of larger crocodiles is also increasing, as saltwater crocodiles can live up to 70 years and reach lengths of up to 23 feet over their lifetime.
Governor Lawler said the death was “heartbreaking” and told reporters $337,000 had been allocated in the Northern Territory budget for crocodile management next year.
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According to the NT News, the region’s opposition leader, Lia Finocchiaro, told reporters more investment was needed.
She said the girl’s death “sends a message that this area is not safe and we don’t need any more bad news headlines on top of our law and order and crime issues.”
Leading Australian crocodile scientist Professor Graham Webb told the Australian Conservation Society that more community education was needed and that the government should fund Indigenous rangers and research into crocodile movements.
“As long as we don’t know what the crocodiles are going to do, we’re going to have the same problem,” he said. “Eradicating them isn’t going to solve the problem.”
Police said on Thursday that efforts were ongoing to capture the crocodile that attacked the girl, adding that saltwater crocodiles are highly territorial and the attacker is likely to remain in nearby waterways.
