A heavily scarred crocodile weighing up to half a tonne has been pulled from Darwin Harbour, prompting a warning that salties are on the move during a heavy wet season.
The ABC reports that the 4.5-metre creature was so large that rangers struggled to remove it from the trap in the western side of the harbour.
Veteran crocodile ranger Tom Nichols said the croc, which is missing some toes and part of its tail, was the largest one pulled from the harbour so far this year.
“It’s a large animal — we had to tie him alongside the boat because he’s too heavy to put in the boat,” he said. “A crocodile this size — he’s very dangerous. There’s not much chance of getting away from him.”
Rangers say it’s the second crocodile pulled from the same trap in the space of a week.
The ABC reports that they are warning that a ‘large number’ of deadly saltwater crocodiles have been trapped in recent weeks, including some in areas where people swim against crocodile safety advice.
“We’ve had two bad wet seasons in a row and movement was quite restricted,” Mr Nichols told the ABC. “But this year, we’ve obviously had a really good wet season so far … so we’re getting crocodiles moving into all these different areas, which is not unusual if you have good rainfall.”
He warned that crocs were moving up into areas where we don’t usually have them.
“People have just got to be so CrocWise because you just don’t know where they are,” he said.
A cull is over due.