The top end of Australia is crocodile heaven! When we were in Broome we were told that they occasionally have to close the beach because a croc or two moves in. We didn't see any crocs, but we were well aware that there could, at certain times, be crocs in the area. Scary stuff, but not fully appreciated until we arrived in Darwin.
Years ago, when crocodiles were hunted, people actually used to swim in the Darwin Harbour and Adelaide River (the Adelaide River is a major river that concludes in the Darwin Harbour). No one swims there now! Since they have started protecting crocodiles in the early 70's, the crocs have had an exponential increase in numbers and no one would risk swimming in these areas (tragically, a couple of weeks ago a young girl near Darwin was eaten by a crocodile while swimming in a "safe" place...crocodiles really get around.) Now the crocs and citizens are in a transitional time. The crocs can't be hunted, but some of the captured ones are destined to become lovely purses, boots and shoes, sold both overseas and in Darwin.
Our first exposure to the wild crocodiles in the Northern Territory was on the morning of our trip to Litchfield National Park. We started the day by heading to the Adelaide River and getting in a very low profile tinny (sort of like a beat up floating caravan). We really didn't see any crocodiles at the very beginning of the boat trip, but we could see the signs of them on the riverbank. The guide told us that it was only legal to feed once we got past a certain point in the river. We envisioned it would be like one of those Koi ponds, where the fish gather near the food and then swim away. Not so for these prehistoric beasts!
Leaping for food
The guide had a 2 - 3m long bamboo pole with a heavy gauge string on the end, to which he tied a raw piece of meat (mostly the leftovers from beef processing plants). Far faster than you can imagine, a very large (3+m) crocodile swam up to the boat, leapt out of the water to waist height, and clamped onto the bait. The sound of those jaws clamping shut was positively deafening! (We can't imagine what it would have been like for early settlers, maybe thinking that they could outsmart or outswim these creatures...they have been around for millions of years and are more or less the perfect killing machine.) This baiting of crocodiles was repeated more than 20 times and we saw far more crocodiles in the water, watching the action and hoping to be the next one to have a go. The smaller crocodiles must move away from the food when a bigger croc comes into the picture, otherwise the little guy becomes the food. We certainly saw enough crocs missing arms to know how much they like to bite. (Fun fact from Wikipedia: a crocodile's closing jaw pressure is up tp 5000 pounds per square inch (psi) or 30 MPa for us metric folks. Compare this to a great white shark, with just 400 psi (pfft!) or a human with a mere 120 psi (why bother?). On the flip side, the muscles that open the jaws are so weak that the jaws can be held just by human hands...not that we'd be willing to experiment with that!)
Lurking Croc
Sometimes they don't bite right away...the other guy at the top is playing it cool
Note his missing right arm!
The little tinny that kept us safe
After seeing this display we were intrigued by a tourist attraction called "Crocosaurus Cove", right in the centre of Darwin. We were a bit dubious because we thought that it was a place to catch a bus that would take you to a crocodile sanctuary somewhere out of town, but no, the crocodile park is a two level enclosure right in the middle of the Darwin CBD (central business district). The backpacker's bar and several apartments look right into the park and we can only imagine how many backpackers have had drunken thoughts about climbing the walls to wrestle a crocodile...not a good plan!
All that keeps this croc at bay is the aluminum pole...we'd rather have a gun!
They had the biggest and oldest crocodiles here. They had some that were more than 5m long and 80 years old, including the one that was in the Crocodile Dundee movie. He was an angry croc who was missing his front leg and had killed every potential mate that he had ever met. Needless to say, he was in isolation. There is also a tank here where about 3 large adults and people can pay to get in the "cage of death" which is a plexiglass cylinder that is lowered into the tank. We saw some people in the cage and it did not look pleasant.
Leaping little guys!
We really liked seeing the tank ponds with more than a hundred juvenile crocs, all swimming around and jumping for food. They get their entire bodies out the water and it is really something to see! We took the opportunity to hold a baby crocodile, who was strangely cute but still ready and willing to attack, if only they would remove the elastics from around his snout.
Sort of graceful and kind of cute...from behind plexiglass
