A popular swimming hole in the Northern Territory’s Litchfield National Park has been re-opened following a freshwater crocodile ‘incident’ last week.
The NT Parks and Wildlife service says it has now removed the 70-centimetre reptile that is believed to have bitten a 36-year-old tourist was at Wangi Falls.
The man had gone for a swim at about 7pm on Wednesday evening when he felt a bite on the calf of his leg.
“He looked down and he had a baby croc hanging off him,” NT Police Duty Superintendent, Bob Rennie, told the ABC. “He’s wedged the jaws open and got it out and this little croc has given him a little shake and bitten him on the finger as well.”
He dressed the wound himself, but went to the nearby Batchelor Health Clinic for further help. He ended up with two stitches in his finger and eight staples in his leg.
The freshie responsible for the man’s injuries will now be re-located.
“We will take it out of the pool area and take it downstream,” Lincoln Wilson from the NT Parks and Wildlife Commission, told the ABC. “Unfortunately we get a couple of instances every couple of years with these sorts of interactions.”
There was one in the same swimming hole 3 years ago when we were there. Apparently the locals will sometimes put a small freshie in there for ‘fun’ .