From the brink of extinction to Australia's croc 'paradise'
Conservation efforts in Australia's far north are credited with helping wrestle the saltwater predators back from the verge of extinction, with experts Grahame Webb and Charlie Manolis describing a unique program that relies on wild egg harvesting, removing problem crocodiles and safety campaigns that allow the scaly predators to coexist with the locals in Australia's Northern Territory. Darwin's Crocodylus Park, founded by Webb, is home to problem crocodiles that were removed for eating cattle or posing a risk to people. Croc keeper Jess Grills says the crocodiles under her care are now in 'paradise' and her tours help visitors respect the imposing reptiles.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 In Australia's far north, even these troublesome saltwater crocodiles have a home, as efforts
00:06 to conserve the reptiles pay off.
00:08 Jess Grills helps tourists get up close to the creatures at this park near Darwin.
00:13 We have got 47 of them in this river.
00:15 The majority of them again are wild caught, so they've all been problematic out in the
00:19 wild, causing grief, too close to human life.
00:22 Some of them were cataleters, so they've all just been taken out of the wild, brought into
00:26 parks like this.
00:27 They do come in here to paradise, they get fed on a daily basis.
00:30 But people and crocs weren't always happy neighbours.
00:33 In the 20th century, the creatures were driven to the brink of extinction.
00:37 When the demand for their skin to make fashion leather came up, everyone thought that was
00:42 great, they could get rid of the crocodiles and get paid to do it, so it was a win-win
00:46 situation.
00:47 It wasn't until the 1960s that people were starting to realise that crocodiles were being
00:53 depleted all over the place in the wild.
00:56 We estimate the population had been reduced by like 98% or something.
01:01 There were maybe 3,000 animals left, but of that, probably less than 500 adults.
01:10 After government protections in the 1970s, crocodile numbers began to rise, but so did
01:15 attacks.
01:16 Croc expert Graham Webb says crocodile tourism, the harvesting of wild eggs for use in leather
01:21 farms and blunt messaging on safety have helped prevent colds, allowing numbers to soar.
01:27 But it's been really a raging success story.
01:30 Now when we look back, our populations are almost fully recovered, if not fully recovered.
01:35 There's maybe 100,000 crocodiles now.
01:38 It's about $100 million a year in turnover, you know, with everybody.
01:44 It extends out into Aboriginal communities and it helps the tourist industry here.
01:49 So we've made them an asset to the Northern Territory rather than a liability.
01:54 With crocodile populations returning to pristine levels, a key hurdle for the region now is
01:59 to avoid complacency around the dangers of crocodiles and their habitats.
02:04 The biggest challenge is to maintain that public support for very large numbers of saltwater
02:10 crocodiles.
02:12 And as I said, like in 1979 when I started working with crocodiles, there were very few
02:18 large ones.
02:19 Now the population is dominated by large crocodiles and they're the ones that cause the problems
02:25 with people.
02:26 For Grylls, admiring the hulking predators up close builds respect and ensures a balance
02:32 between the scaly locals and their potential human prey.
02:36 I was in mining and then I was a mother and now I'm a crop keeper.
02:43 Because crocodiles do look at humans as a food source, they do seem terrifying, but
02:48 if you respect them and their territory, I don't think that they would be as terrifying.
02:54 I don't think that they've got a very bad rap with their name, which I think is very
02:58 unfair on them because at the end of the day, they've been here for millions of years and
03:02 we've been here for not as much.
03:05 [MUSIC]
03:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]