Crocodiles are good for tourism and tourism is good for the crocs. They add an excitement, danger and exoticism for overseas travellers, especially Americans, without the discomfort. There’s nothing like viewing a fearsome, dangerous crocodile in Australia _ a country where they speak English and you can drink water out of the tap. All the excitement without the discomfort of Africa.
Moreover, force is added to their travel stories back home in Winslow, Arizona, by the fact an American tourist was actually killed by one.
The tour operators revel in telling about it, to the point of bad taste, literally.
Every so often an attack, even without injuries, will add to the frontier aura. Indeed, attacks are becoming more frequent and are likely to continue that way.
Saltwater (man-eating) crocodiles have been protected in the Northern Territory since 1971. They have made a rapid recovery from endangered to abundant. There were perhaps only about 5000 in 1971, after extensive shooting for “”sport” and to clear waterways for safety. Now there are 50,000 and a further 8000 in farms.
The farmed crocodiles provide a large industry for skins and meat. Dr Grahame Webb, perhaps Australia’s leading expert on crocodiles, argues the combination of farming, tourism and conservation measures will ensures they will not become extinct.
He says once wildlife has an economic value, its survival chances are much greater.
Who would want to fill in or drain a swamp for risky farming if crocodiles are providing a good income? Moreover, if the crocodiles are preserved, so is their habitat and hence the habitat for other animals and birds.
The education program in the Territory on dangers of crocodiles and the program of removing large troublesome crocodiles to farms means that attacks are confined to the foolish or the ignorant.
Though this may change. It has been only 21 years since protection. It takes about 12 years for a male to reach maturity and 16 for a female. This means the vast majority of crocodiles are not fully mature. The proportion of very large crocodiles can be expected to grow.
Males reach between four and five metres. Females rarely exceed three.
As the number of large crocodiles grows, so might attacks. A boat was attacked in Kakadu National Park last week (Oct 11-18). It bit a hole in the boat and the couple fishing from it had to head for shore.
Recent scares have given rise to calls for people to carry guns on boats, but these have been rejected.
It is very easy to see crocodiles safely. Cruises run daily on the Adelaide River 60kms from Darwin. Crocodiles leap in convenient photographic distance for pieces of meat dangled from a stick by an obliging crewman at the front of the boat. Crocodiles will jump naturally, but only after prey.
Some argue that the crocodiles are being inadvertently trained to be fearless of boats and to leap further than they might otherwise do. Feeding is prohibited near the bridge where the Arnhem Highway crosses the river.
At Kakadu no feed of anything is permitted. The crocodiles lurk nostrils and eyes only above the water, like logs. Thousands of magpie geese flock to Yellow Waters Lagoon, the last permanent water hole at the end of the Dry. The lagoon has hundreds of species of birds. They keep a wary eye out, but the crocs don’t starve. Trips on flat-bottom boats go out several times a day from before dawn. The birds carry on undisturbed a few metres away: from the cone-crested jacana which walks on the lily leaves to the huge white-bellied sea eagle.
At the Territory Wildlife Park 50kms from Darwin, crocodiles can be seen really close up (20cms or less) from behinds the safety of glass.
The park has perhaps the best nocturnal walk through in the world showing animals that you would never see in the wild. It has the full range of territory birds (including endangered ones) in huge aviaries.
It is also very easy to swim safely, away from the habitat of the saltwater crocodile, in the spring waters of Litchfield National Park 120kms from Darwin. The splendid Wangi Falls has a deep clear pool at their base year round. Tolmer Falls have a huge cave at their base, but they can only be viewed from the top. Some morons threw rocks at the horseshoe bats that inhabit the cave, so now swimming access to the outside pools have had to be cut off. Why does tourism kill off the very things that tourists want to see?
I suppose one of the better aspects of tourism in the Northern Territory is that much of it is based on retired rich foreigners, who behave themselves and who do not stray to far from the controlled beaten track, leaving plenty of wilderness for those who want it.