The Border Between Crocs and Humans | Explorer
The saltwater crocodile is among the fiercest hunters on the planet. This awe-inspiring prehistoric predator has the strongest animal bite ever recorded and can measure 20 feet long. No doubt it takes a certain breed of human to live in the salty's habitat. But in Australia's top end, locals have a unique and surprising method to cope with the world's largest reptile. Here's Tim Samuel's, "Down Under."
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'It's rare these days to be able to celebrate an extinction good news story. But 40 odd years after being close to disappearing, crocodiles now outnumber humans in the Northern Territory thanks to an aggressive conservation campaign. As the humans around here push their boundaries, the crocodile population pushes back. Keeping the peace is a constant struggle.
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REPORTER: Good evening. A family's worst nightmare has come true with strong indications their 11-year-old girl has been taken by a crocodile. Charlene O'Sullivan's daughter, Brioni, went swimming with her sister and a group of friends Lambells Lagoon.
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TIM SAMUELS: In 2009, Charlene O'Sullivan's 11-year-old daughter, Brioni, became the 64th recorded Australian to be killed by a saltwater crocodile. I just remember sitting there numb, thinking what happened?
TIM SAMUELS: This is where Brioni was swimming with her seven-year-old sister Beth and two friends. I saw a crocodile tail splash the surface, and she disappeared.
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What was your emotional reaction? Angry, betrayed. Did anybody else know that there were crocodiles in the area? And if they did, why didn't they tell us?
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This is my favorite. Yeah, that's her. How often does Brioni pop into your mind? Daily. And I am richer for having her, even if it was for a moment.
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TIM SAMUELS: Saltwater crocodiles are like living dinosaurs. With adult males averaging a size of 17 feet and weighing half a ton, it's a terrifying predator—so much so that for a long time, killing them was a badge of honor. In fact, by the 1970s, trophy hunting nearly wiped them out altogether. But 40 years ago, a controversial conservation plan brought them back from the brink. Ironically, it was so successful that now it's Aussies that feel under threat.
So what convinced the folks in the Northern Territory, the so-called "Top End," to live alongside these deadly beasts? Behind this whole conservation effort is one guy, a Darwin zoologist—the godfather of crocodile conservation. Grahame Webb knows crocs are a tough sell. Crocs are as bad as they look. They will rip your arms off, your legs off, they'll eat your children. You've got to have good incentives for people to put up with that.
TIM SAMUELS: We met Grahame at Crocodylus Park, the Wildlife Center he founded in 1994. I feel like a maternity nurse.
Yeah.
TIM SAMUELS: Grahame's been advocating for saltwater crocodiles, or salty's, since the 70s. But his approach was and is divisive. His aim is to get locals to see the creature not so much as a killer, but a profitable commodity.
Take these eggs. These were laid by the crocs at the park. Grahame and his team have taken them to sell to commercial farmers to raise for slaughter.
What's their fate?
Their fate is they'll go in the incubator, and then they'll go into a farm somewhere.
On the farm raises them to turn them into leather goods?
Leather goods, and they go into meat and souvenirs and belts and all sorts of things.
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TIM SAMUELS: Favored by luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci, crocodile leather fetches up to 30 times the price of cow leather. Some URMA handbags go for well over 100,000 US dollars.
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All told, Aussie salty's are a $100 million US dollar a year industry, and that's a strong motivation for keeping croc numbers up.
Does it not feel strange that you are--
Not for me.
A zoologist, you're a conservationist, you're lovingly rearing these eggs to then turn into a handbag.
I can look at what we've achieved here. We've brought the populations back to carrying capacity.
TIM SAMUELS: Grahame compares salty's with another deadly predator fighting for survival. Back in the 70s, the global number of wild tigers was roughly the same as the number of top end salty's. Today, the crocs have bounced back, but the tiger remains on the brink.
Why is that?
Why is that? That's because the people who live with tigers do not have any vested interest in having lots of tigers.
TIM SAMUELS: Though the hatchlings from these eggs will grow up on farms, there are still 100,000 salty's roaming in the wild in the Northern Territory. So while trophy hunting is banned, the Aussie government allows up to 1,200 permits a year to top end hunters who track down problem crocs.
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I'm all ready to go for a bit of a recky.
When you say recky, do you mean see if any crocodiles is out there?
- Yes. And if there is, we're going to catch them.
Right. Great.
Roger Matthews makes a living culling problem crocs with the help of his teenage son, Brody.
Are you game for a bit of action?
Yeah, let's see what's out there.
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Roger is being called out to this ranch to hunt down a croc that's been stalking the owner's cows.
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We drive to a nearby waterhole, a place salty's are known to hide out. You'd be surprised, half a meter of water and this huge crocodile.
TIM SAMUELS: The salty's MO is to ambush their victims and drag them into the water and drown them.
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You see this? This is definitely a crocodile. A few bubbles in here.
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TIM SAMUELS: And how do you know there's just one in there?
You don't. Air bubbles and the nose. See that?
TIM SAMUELS: Yeah.
Roger has spotted the salty. Now the hard part—it's pretty wild.
Catching it. A two-man job. Woah.
Reeling in a croc like this is a half ton tug-of-war.
Have you got it?
ROGER MATTHEWS: We got him.
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TIM SAMUELS: By law, this croc must be humanely put down.
OK. Do you feel bad about having to do this?
ROGER MATTHEWS: I do, but also it's what we have to do.
TIM SAMUELS: And how he gets paid.
And how much is a nice trophy skin?
A full meter crocodile, the skin could be worth anywhere from $5,000 to $6,000. And the skull is about $4,000 Australian dollars.
TIM SAMUELS: Roger loves crocs, yet he makes a living hunting them. It's contradictions like these that define Australia's croc conservation program.
Consider Charlene O'Sullivan. Her daughter, Brioni, was killed by a croc in 2009. Now, she farms them.
Are you serious?
I'm absolutely serious.
Not what a lot of people expected.
They're just over here.
TIM SAMUELS: How many crocodiles do you have?
CHARLENE O'SULLIVAN: About 4,500 at the moment.
TIM SAMUELS: Charlene's farm is called BA Crocs. The BA stands for Brioni Anne.
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It is, I guess, the legacy towards my daughter's death, to her life as well. This is for her.
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TIM SAMUELS: In a capitalistic society, it seems everything can be sold, given the right price, even animal conservation. That salty's are no longer endangered is proof for many this commercial model is working. But as stories of commercial conservation play out around the world on game reserves in Africa and the jungles of Southeast Asia, the true costs remain to be seen.