Salt Water Crocs

[JoeSoap]

Question for the Australian contingent: Are salties entirely protected or can they be hunted? Also was wondering do the cattle ranches in the Kimberly loose many cattle heads to the crocs and can you cull the crocs at the watering holes?

 

[BlueFlyer]

Are salties entirely protected or can they be hunted?

Totally protected - problem crocs are trapped and removed, not shot.

do the cattle ranches in the Kimberly loose many cattle

Yes.

can you cull the crocs at the watering holes?

No

 

[BlueFlyer]

This article may help you understand the politics around crocs = zero chance the law will change.

Steve Irwin 'wouldn't have wanted this': Australia Zoo calls police on traditional owner

Traditional owner Alwyn Lyall says he felt "extremely upset and humiliated" when police asked him to leave Australia Zoo, where he was trying to see a crocodile he says was "wrongfully arrested" and taken from the wild.

www.abc.net.au

 

[375Fox]

I hunted buffalo in Australia in 2017. That ranch was given crocodile harvesting permits each year. They could not be hunted and couldn’t be taken by client, but they sold “crocodile harvesting experiences” so you could be part of trapping one. There were a number of buffalo missing parts of their noses. I’d think cattle would just be taken. There were a large number of crocs in the 13-14 ft range we saw on edges of floodplain. The owner had a 15 ft pet in a pen that was a problem on a different ranch.

 

[DieJager]

You can hunt them in Malaysia if you want to. A few outfitters offer trips there.

 

[CloudySkies]

Local aboriginal groups are the only ones allowed to hunt/take them as part of traditional food rights that they won back in the 1990s. Damn things are like the plague across the top end and really need to be better controlled - if you ever want to convince yourself not to go anywhere near water up there, just take a boat along the East Alligator and see how many 18ft + crocs there are.

Few years ago now was in the Burketown pub with a couple of mates on my way out to fish in the Gulf and heard someone howl with pain, followed by a fellow coming in and handing me this juvenile to hold (my reaction was like...do I really want to be doing this, but crocs are funny, they go still until they sense their moment and so gave me no trouble). Apparently this croc had managed to spring the tape on his mouth and bitten his thumb (blood on the tape fair evidence, and the thumb was a managled sight), he'd retaped him and needed someone to hold it while he bandaged up the thumb. He took his croc back but hung around for a yarn. Talking to this guy for a little while was a riot, he'd caught this one earlier that day, and had taken a few others that season for food. Not sure he was the sharpest tool in the shed as apparently, he'd given his kids a croc larger than this one to take in to school for show and tell...apparently that didn't go down well.

 

[analog_peninsula]

It's redundant to point out that wild animal populations should be managed by biologists not politicians, but I'll do it anyway. Sigh ...

 

[SStomcat]

Problem is akin to wild elephants in India in many regions. With hunting banned and shrinking habitat these herds of animals are going wild, pilfering into villages in search of food, destroying pastures and killing poor people....Not too long ago there was a one tusk male bull that ran amok killing 20 plus people while the babus in high places sat on their fat asses trying to figure out a simple solution.....

Then the rogue vanished, no one knows where it went and when it may strike again...this is the other consequence of banning hunting all-together. My view.

 

[analog_peninsula]

I hesitate to preach to the choir, but I'll do it anyway. One of the primary benefits of sport hunting the ecologically apex species is that it's the simplest/most effective/cheapest way to remove the boldest and most human fearless specimens from the population, and these are the ones most likely to cause problems interacting with the general public, thus leaving the more cautious and human respecting population largely undisturbed. In short, it's just the easiest way to remove the majority of problem animals.