For months, residents of Cordelia in north Queensland, Australia, were terrified of a fourteen-foot-long crocodile that had a nasty habit of preying on chickens and other farm animals.
After being deemed a hazardous animal by local officials, the crocodile was caught along the Herbert River’s banks in late March.
A resident of Cordelia named Lawrence Perticato told the reporters that he had grown up near the Herbert River and was thus used to seeing crocodiles. However, it was becoming more worrisome how this one had been stalking people.
The Queensland Department of Environment, Science and Innovation spent more than a month trying to trap the animal after Perticato called them.
The crocodile was probably a saltwater species that inhabits rivers and estuaries. With a potential length of twenty feet, these crocodiles are the longest of their kind. They have reportedly killed over a thousand people around the world.
There is no larger reptile than the saltwater crocodile, scientifically known as Crocodileus porosus. The salty crocodile, or estuary crocodile, is a species of crocodile that lives in freshwater rivers, saltwater environments, and brackish wetlands in northern Australia, Southeast Asia, and eastern India.
There have been three fatalities in Australia since 2018, yet the country only experiences one attack per year on average due to its small population of saltwater crocodiles (200,000).
According to senior wildlife officer Tony Frisby from the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation, every sighting report is thoroughly investigated by wildlife inspectors. After carefully observing the crocodile’s behavior, they removed it from its natural habitat.
After attempting an in-river floating trap, they were forced to resort to a gated trap on the riverbank because of the heavy rains and high river levels.
The crocodile will be taken to a zoo or wildlife refuge.
The agency urges people living near waterways and places where crocodiles are frequent to stay away from the water, not to feed crocodiles, and not to leave fish scraps along the river’s edge.
Because saltwater crocodiles can also be found in the ocean, they advise against swimming at night and only in clear water.
