G'day, have a look at this guy!
This is the newest crocodile in our croc research study.
For the month of August, this year, we've been out
on the Wenlock River catching crocodiles.
Now we use amazing trapping methods that my dad first came up with,
but this guy was actually wrangled straight out of the river.
And this is all in the name of croc science.
It's been a wonderful trip so far with a lot of new crocs tagged,
a couple of old friends as well, some recaptures from previous years.
And every single new crocodile that we catch provides us with a little bit
more insight into the secretive world of this
incredible apex predator.
Crocodiles, of course, grow to be the largest
reptile and one of the largest predators on the face of the earth.
They're an incredibly highly evolved,
intelligent, prehistoric animal.
This guy is only young, very, very small.
He's got a lot of growing to do.
A head full of very, very nice teeth
that he'd love to put to good use.
He's just a gorgeous little croc.
Now, this bloke, he's going to provide us with some amazing data.
He's going to be getting an acoustic transmitter.
His length will be taken.
And if we ever recapture him again, we can see his growth rate.
So we can actually now determine through our acoustic telemetry
exactly what a crocodile does upwards of ten years.
So if we were to re-catch this guy again and again and again,
we could be getting decades worth of data on a particular animal.
And it's thanks to an amazing team at Australia Zoo.
Utilizing incredible safe capture methods and also working in conjunction
with the University of Queensland. It takes a lot of gear,
a lot of croc traps, a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of money...
But it is absolutely worth it.
Every new croc that we get, big or small, is going to help us protect them.
Unfortunately, it's an uphill battle for Crocs.
People really often hate them and fear them and want to remove them.
People have this unfortunate arrogance
that you know, we should be entitled to swim wherever we want.
And it's our river... That's not the case.
Crocodiles have been here a lot longer than we have.
Saltwater croc’s been around 200 million years plus, in some kind of form.
And for 65 million years, crocodilians have looked
virtually exactly the same as they do today.
So that means it's up to us to co-exist with crocodiles.
It's not the crocodiles job to try and co-exist with humans.
The best way to manage crocs and the best way to
promote crocodile safety... ironically, is by managing our behaviors.
It's not about culling crocs.
It's not about removing them from the ecosystem.
We've found the crocodiles can move huge distances
upwards of 60 kilometers in a single day.
That means if you were to go in and try and cull out crocs,
you just going to create the ultimate false sense of security.
People will think they can swim there.
And it's a matter of time that a confrontation occurs.
It also degrades the ecosystem.
Crocs are an apex predator sitting at the top of the food chain.
If we remove them, every single animal underneath it and
that's your barramundi, mud crabs, sawfish,
everything in this river is going to suffer greatly.
We need crocs and I reckon it's time we love and celebrate
our beautiful saltwater crocs here in Australia.
We don't need to fear them.
We should feel so much pride.
That we've got these guys right in our backyards.
All right, well.
He's probably sick of me just rabbiting on.
I'm going to pass him over to our scientists.
He's going to be locally anesthetized right here.
Little tag popped in there and then 'plop' -straight back into the river.
Good stuff.
See ya mate!