In news that may upset wildlife lovers, an unusual feast has been served in the isolated Australian community of Bulla after a rogue saltwater crocodile that had been plaguing residents was shot by police.
The 3.6-metre-long creature arrived in the small Northern Territory aboriginal area after floods earlier this year, a police statement said. Since then it “had been stalking and lunging out of the water at children and adults. The crocodile had also reportedly taken multiple community dogs,” police reported. In response, and a striking reversal of fortune, the locals ate the predator.
Although salt and freshwater crocodiles have enjoyed protection from hunting in Australia since 1971 when they were on the brink of extinction, the decision to shoot the unwelcome reptile was taken by Bulla police “in consultation with Traditional Owners, Elders, community members and Parks and Wildlife,” the police statement went on, “to ensure that it did not continue to pose a significant risk to the community.”
Some may find the killing and eating of the beast hard to swallow, but crocodile numbers have recovered so well over the last 50 years that the reptiles are now competing for territory. Increasingly this means they are moving into more populated areas. To make matters worse, climate change too is said to be driving the creatures into areas where locals are perhaps less used to encountering them.
Be Crocwise
Director of Wildlife Operations for Australia’s Department of Environment, Parks and Water Safety, Kristen Hay, has warned: “Any body of water in the Top End (Northern Territory) may contain large and potentially dangerous crocodiles. That’s why we urge everyone to be crocwise and only swim where there are designated swimming signs.”
The public awareness opportunity created by the Bulla incident was seized immediately by authorities, with an impromptu croc safety session for local children, who were given an “up-close look at the dangers within our waterways,” the police statement said.
Mostly nocturnal, saltwater or “estuarine” crocs exist “in a wide range of habitats, including rivers, estuaries, creeks, swamps, lagoons and billabongs,” according to the nation’s first public museum, Australian Museum. They are active throughout the year and “will eat just about any animal that they can catch and overpower.” That includes cannibalism. Usually they approach stealthily underwater and slam their jaws around their prey. If the force of that doesn’t kill it (and, beware, the largest crocodile skull ever measured was a metre wide), they drag it into a waterway where they dismember it.
Zero-waste dinner
After the children’s information session, the crocodile was transported into the tiny community of Bulla where, in what some are calling a zero-waste move, it was prepared for eating in several traditional ways. According to police Sergeant Andrew McBride that included cooking it “up into crocodile tail soup, he was on the barbecue, a few of the pieces were wrapped up in banana leaves and cooked underground.
“It was a rather large traditional feast and there were a few full bellies,” McBride added, while Police Commander Anderson summed up: “There’s never a dull moment in remote policing.”
