Management of killer crocodiles surfaces as a poll flashpoint

The management of the state's crocodile population is shaping up to be a major election issue with 477 crocodiles sightings reported to the environment department so far this year, a significant jump from 345 in the same period of 2015.

Fishing Port Douglas owner Lynton Heffer has been fishing in North Queensland for 22 years and said crocodile behaviour had changed, particularly over the past two years.

"In the past couple of years we've certainly seen them more frequently in the more public areas," he said. "I don't think they're scared of human activity anymore and they're encroaching on areas they haven't been in the past.

"It's not behaviour you'd usually see."

Ian Jenkins, who owns Snakes Downunder Reptile Park and Zoo near Childers, said the crocodile population was spreading out.

"I think the likelihood of crocs moving further south than they traditionally have been is going to keep increasing," he said. "They don't read maps and they can travel considerable distances.

"I think crocs are looking to expand their territory so they are moving further afield and moving into areas they're not traditionally known to be."

Both Mr Jenkins and Mr Heffer were sceptical of calls for a cull saying it would create complacency and would never guarantee complete safety in waterways.

Cairns was the most common area for croc sightings so far this year with 108 reports, followed by the Cassowary Coast 66, Townsville 61 and Douglas 50.

Brenton Gangemi, who runs Snapping Tours on the Johnstone River at Innisfail, said he generally saw four to five crocodiles on each tour.

"I don't necessarily think there's an increase in crocodile numbers but there are certainly more people around to see them," he said. "There are always going to be crocodiles so people just need to be vigilant.

"Even if you cull the crocs, you've still got bull sharks and stingers to contend with."

Mount Isa MP Robbie Katter is leading the push to introduce controlled culls and legalise crocodile egg harvesting.

"It appears the crocs are not only growing in numbers but everyone here would agree they're much bolder and not scared of human presence," he said. "Undeniably there must be greater numbers because there are crocs in the river systems where we swim, pushing up into areas where they've never been in modern memory."

Shadow environment minister Christian Rowan said problem crocodiles would be shot on sight under the LNP's proposed crocodile management policy, with zones drawn up to decide the appropriate action but his government did not support a cull.

"From anecdotal reports there seems to have been a significant increase (in sightings)," he said.

"Absolutely it's a significant issue in the North and it will be a significant election issue."

The State Government is undertaking a $2.7 million, three-year crocodile population survey and monitoring program to track croc numbers.

Environment Minister Steven Miles said targeted crocodile operations had doubled under the Labor Government.

"We have made the wildlife officers, who do a very difficult and sometimes unsafe job, permanent," he said. "They were temporary officers under the (previous government)."

An EHP spokesman stressed increased sightings were not necessarily due to a population increase and could be attributed to multiple sightings of one animal or could be a case of mistaken identity.

Croc suspected of killing dementia patient euthanized

The crocodile believed to have killed a dementia patient who wandered away from her nursing home in northeast Australia was no local, according to regional newspaper The Cairns Post.

Officials confirmed on Monday, according to the Post, that a 14-foot saltwater crocodile had been found in the Mowbray River, near Port Douglas in Queensland, where 79-year-old Anne Cameron disappeared last week.

Authorities said human remains found inside the crocodile, which was later euthanized, confirmed it had attacked Cameron.

Police first found human remains, along with Cameron's clothes and walking stick, near a creek bank almost a week ago, two days after she wandered from her a nursing home. Members of her family have said she likely became disoriented in the forest while going for one of her regular walks.

The Cairns Post on Tuesday cited an official with Australia's Department of Environment and Heritage Protection as saying a similar-sized croc had been spotted in the region in recent weeks, and that it was not known to locals.

"It may well be that it's just come in as an opportunistic (predator)," he told the newspaper.

Department operations manager for conservation Chris Artiemiew told the Post that the crocodile's suspicious behavior tipped those hunting for it off.

"The behavioural tendencies we picked up were very subtle, but basking during the day — that usually means that it had had a rather large feed — and also just boldness, being out during the day," he told the Cairns newspaper.

Crocodiles are territorial, and killer crocs are usually caught near the scene of attacks.

Government wildlife director Michael Joyce had said soon after Cameron's death that he was confident of catching the crocodile, and urged the public to report any "abnormal" crocodile behavior.

This 10-Foot-Long Jurassic Crocodile Once Menaced Britain's Seas

A reanalysis of a heavily damaged fossil found nearly 150 years ago has revealed the existence of an absolute monster of the ancient seas. And the discovery of the new species, nicknamed the "Melksham Monster," shows that an extinct group of ancient reptiles appeared on Earth millions of years earlier than previously thought.

Meet Leldraan melkshamensis, a 10-foot-long marine crocodile that lived 163 million years ago during the Middle Jurassic era. Not only is it a new species of ancient crocodile, it represents an entirely new genus of extinct reptiles. Prior to this discovery, scientists thought that the sub-family of prehistoric crocodiles to which this creature belonged, Geosaurini, emerged around 152 million years ago. But a reanalysis of this fossil shows that this group arose millions of years earlier, during the Middle Jurassic.

Modern crocodiles aren't directly descended from these beasts, but they do share a common ancestor. The new species, as described in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, featured long, powerful jaws and large serrated teeth which it likely used to chomp down on various prey, including prehistoric squid. Leldraan melkshamensis, which prowled the warm, shallow seas of what is now Europe, would have been one of the top aquatic predators of Jurassic Britain. Its nickname, the "Melksham Monster," comes from the English town in which it was found.

These findings were derived from a badly damaged fossil that was discovered back in 1875 in England's Oxford Clay Formation. A research team led by Davide Foffa, a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, was able to identify the new species by analyzing its skull, lower jaw, and teeth.

"It's not the prettiest fossil in the world, but the Melksham Monster tells us a very important story about the evolution of these ancient crocodiles and how they became the apex predators in their ecosystem," said Foffa in a press release. "Without the amazing preparation work done by our collaborators at the Natural History Museum, it would not have been possible to work out the anatomy of this challenging specimen."

Indeed, pulling the specimen from the rock was an ordeal unto itself. The fossil was completely enveloped in a super-hard rock, with veins of calcite running through it. The preparation team, led by Mark Graham from the NHM, had to remove these minerals by force using carbon steel tipped chisels and grinding wheels equipped with industrial-grade diamonds. It took many hours and weeks, and considerable care had to be taken to avoid damaging the bits of exposed fossil.

"This was one tough old croc in life and death!" said Graham.

Saving the Endangered Cuban Crocodile

The critically endangered Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer) has many peculiar qualities, but perhaps the most intriguing one is its curiosity. For biologists conducting fieldwork in Zapata Swamp, Cuba's largest wetland and the only place in the world where the species is found, this is a notable trait. The crocs will investigate a campsite if nothing prevents them. Protective netting is deployed to keep them out, although not always successfully. "The animal comes inside the camp looking for a warm place to sleep beneath"—referring to human bodies in hammocks, says Etiam Pérez, a Cuban crocodile researcher and manager of the Zapata Swamp Captive Breeding Farm.

Pérez is speaking to Scientific American at the farm, beside an open-air pen that holds hundreds of young, brilliant, black-and-yellow Cuban crocodiles under the fierce Caribbean sun. The tropical facility claims more than 4,000 specimens of what Pérez calls "the most beautiful crocodile in the world." Like most Cuban operations it is government-owned, and was founded 57 years ago by Fidel Castro himself. A large black-and-white photograph of Castro hangs on a wall of the facility, complete with a lengthy quotation from the late autocrat praising Cuban crocodile conservation. The animal, Pérez says, holds a kind of political and symbolic weight in Cuba, especially in in the south-central Matanzas Province, where Zapata Swamp is located.

But the crocodile's vaunted status has not prevented its decline. Overhunting in the 19th and 20th centuries coupled with deforestation from increased development in modern times has reduced its population to historic lows. Scientists estimate only around 3,000 wild crocs are left, although even that number comes largely from guesswork. Now scientists are scratching their heads over another potential threat to these reptiles: interbreeding with American crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus).

The most widely distributed crocodilian species in the Americas, C. acutus, is native to Cuba (as well as the U.S.) and, unlike C. rhombifer, flourishing across the country. Scientists say the two species are morphologically, ecologically and behaviorally distinct from each other. Increased hybridization of the two poses an existential risk to the much less common Cuban species via a gradual erosion of its genetic identity. For conservation-minded scientists, this is worrying indeed. "The concern is that widespread hybridization might eliminate the unique Cuban crocodile through [such] genetic swamping," says George Amato, a conservation genomics biologist at the American Museum of Natural History.

Yoamel Milián-García, a biologist at the University of Havana, first published data on the hybridization epidemic in 2015. He analyzed scale clippings of 227 wild crocodiles and 137 farm-raised ones, finding that 49.1 percent of the wild specimens were hybrids and 16.1 percent of captive ones possessed mixed genes. "The degree of hybridization that we're seeing seems much higher than we would have predicted or imagined," Amato says. "Some people think it's the biggest threat" to these animals, he adds.

But nobody knows for sure. Hybridization could be a frightening species eraser. It could also be a normal historical process, says Amato, who has collaborated with Cuban biologists, including Milián-García and Pérez, on crocodile research there since the 1990s. Scientists simply do not have enough evolutionary or biological data yet to decide which interpretation is the right one.

Idiots swim INSIDE crocodile trap baited with pig carcasses in infested Australian waters

A GROUP of men are lucky to be alive after swimming inside a crocodile trap in a river infested with the savage predators.

The four grinning morons were pictured inside the trap - which is baited with pig carcasses - in a marina in Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia.

One of the men even climbed on top of the cage to close the gate - trapping the others inside.

The pictures emerged just a week after it was reported that the grisly remains of a woman who disappeared after wandering out of a care home were found inside the stomach of a crocodile.

Tragic dementia sufferer Anne Cameron's walking stick was discovered in dense Australian bush where the killer reptiles are known to lurk, sparking a massive croc hunt.

The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (EHP) is now investigating the "stupid and reckless interference".

A spokesperson told ABC: "These traps are specifically designed to attract crocodiles and they are deployed in places where a problem crocodile is known to be present.

"It is extremely dangerous to interfere with a crocodile trap, regardless of whether or not there is a crocodile within.

"It is not an exaggeration to say that interfering with crocodile traps can be potentially life-threatening for the person concerned."

Environment Minister Steven Miles added: "You've got grown men swimming in a crocodile trap, exactly where we put the bait for the crocodiles.

"The trap is dangerous in and of itself, and of course if the crocodile were to appear that would be even more dangerous."

The Department of Environment has also warned of an increase in crocodiles and other predators after recent heavy rainfall and flooding.

Remains found in crocodile believed to be missing Queensland woman

Human remains have been found inside a large crocodile police believe killed an elderly woman in Queensland's far north.

Remains believed to belong to Anne Cameron, her walking stick and other items were located at Craiglie Creek, south of Port Douglas, last week.

The 79-year-old was last seen two days before the grim discovery near an aged-care facility and it is thought she became disorientated on a walk and wandered into dense bushland.

Baited traps were set along the creek and nearby Mowbray river, and wildlife officers captured a 4.3m crocodile on Monday night near Craiglie. The animal was examined in Cairns on Tuesday, with human remains found inside.

A report will now be prepared for the coroner.

Cameron's death has prompted Katter's Australian party to renew calls for more stringent management of crocodiles, including culling.

Two other people – Warren Hughes, 35, and Cindy Waldron, 46 – have been killed by crocodiles in far north Queensland in the past 18 months.