Living with Crocodiles: Darwin's Unique Wildlife Management Challenge

The saltwater crocodile, Crocodylus porosus, the world's largest living reptile and the apex predator of the wetlands and tidal waterways of the Top End, has recovered from near extinction following the 1971 protection legislation to a population of approximately 100,000 individuals in the Northern Territory, creating one of the great conservation success stories of Australian wildlife management and one of the most complex human-wildlife coexistence challenges of any Australian city. Darwin's relationship with the saltwater crocodile, the animal that makes every waterway and beach in the Darwin area potentially dangerous and that the 'croc warning' signs at every natural water body reflect, shapes the daily life and the recreational choices of the Darwin population in ways that residents of southern Australian cities find remarkable.

The NT Government's crocodile management program, the regulatory framework that balances the conservation protection of the species with the management of the public safety risk that a rapidly growing crocodile population in close proximity to Darwin's residential areas and recreational water bodies creates, involves the crocodile trapping and removal program that the Crocodile Management Unit operates and the public education about crocodile behaviour and safe behaviour near water that the 'Be Crocwise' campaign delivers. The program's challenge, managing the interface between a fully protected species and a growing city whose residents want to use the natural water environments that the species also occupies, is one of the more unusual wildlife management questions in Australian conservation.

Crocosaurus Cove, the Darwin CBD attraction that provides the controlled crocodile encounter experience that tourists can access in the 'Cage of Death' submersible cage that lowers the visitor into the water with the largest crocodiles in captivity, provides the commercial expression of Darwin's crocodile identity that the tourism market has developed around the genuine wildlife drama that the saltwater crocodile represents. The attraction's combination of the conservation message and the thrill of the encounter creates the tourism product that Darwin's crocodile association sustains as a distinctive and marketable element of the city's visitor proposition.

The scientific research on crocodile biology, behaviour, and population dynamics conducted by the NT Government and the research institutions, including the Charles Darwin University wildlife management programs, provides the knowledge base that the management decisions about the crocodile population are made from. The research's contribution to the understanding of crocodile spatial use, the movement patterns of individuals between freshwater and tidal habitat, and the factors that influence the risk of human-crocodile conflict creates the evidence that the management program can use to target the trapping and the safety interventions most effectively.

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