the saltwater crocodile is among the
fiercest hunters on the planet this or
inspiring prehistoric predator has the
strongest animal bite ever recorded and
can measure 20 feet long no doubt it
takes a certain breed of human to live
in the Salty’s habitat but in
Australia’s top end locals have a unique
and surprising method to cope with the
world’s largest reptile here’s Tim
Samuels Down Under
[Music]
it’s rare these days to be able to
celebrate an extinction good news story
but from two years after been close to
disappearing crocodiles hell outnumber
humans in the Northern Territory thanks
to an aggressive conservation campaign
but says the humans around here push
their boundaries crocodile population
pushes back keeping the peace it’s a
good evening a family’s worst nightmare
has come true with strong indications
their 11-year old girl has been taken by
a crocodile charlene o Sullivan’s
daughter brainy went swimming with her
in 2009
Charlene O’Sullivan’s 11 year old
daughter Briony became the 64th recorded
Australian to be killed by a saltwater
crocodile I just remember sitting there
numb thinking what happened this is
where Brian II was swimming with her
seven-year-old sister Beth and two
friends they saw a crocodile tail
splashed the surface and she disappeared
what was your emotional reaction angry
betrayed did anybody else know that they
were crocodiles in the area and if they
did why didn’t they tell her oh it’s my
favorite
and that’s hairdo – does really pop into
your mind daily and I am richer for
having her even if it was for a moment
saltwater crocodiles are like living
dinosaurs with adult males averaging a
size of 17 feet and weighing half a ton
they’re a terrifying predator so much so
that for a long time killing them was a
badge of honor in fact by the 1970s
trophy hunting nearly wiped them out
altogether but 40 years ago a
controversial conservation plan brought
them back from the brink ironically it
was so successful that now it’s Ozzie’s
that feel under threat
so what convinced the folks in the
Northern Territory the so-called top end
to live alongside these deadly beasts
[Music]
behind this whole conservation affair is
one guy a Darwin zoologist the Godfather
of crocodile conservation great and web
most Crocs are a tough sell
crops are as bad as they me they will
rip your arms off your legs off they’ll
eat your children you’ve got to have
good incentives for people to put up
with them we met Graham at Crocodylus
Park the Wildlife Center he founded in
1994 they’re like a maternity nurse
Graham’s been advocating for saltwater
crocodiles or salties since the 70s but
his approach was and is divisive
its aims to get locals to see the
creature not so much as a killer but a
profitable commodity take these eggs
these were laid by the Crocs at the park
Graham and his team have taken them to
sell to commercial farmers to raise for
slaughter
what’s their fate they fight you Joe
gonna need you bite it
I mean he’ll have found some way and the
farm raise them to turn them into
leather goods today the goods and they
Ganymede and Sheva knees and belts and
also to be favored by luxury brands like
Louis Vuitton and Gucci crocodile
leather fetches up to 30 times the price
of cow leather some ms handbags go for
well over a hundred thousand US dollars
[Music]
all told
Ozzy’s auntie’s are a hundred million
u.s. dollar a year industry and that’s a
strong motivation for keeping crock
numbers up does it not feel strange that
you know you are not familiar as it was
just you a conservationist you you’re
wearing your lovingly wearing these eggs
to them yes I can look what we’ve
achieved here we’ve brought the
populations back to carrying capacity
Graham compares salties with another
back in the 70s the global number of
wild tigers was roughly the same as the
number of top-end Salty’s today the
Crocs have bounced back but the tiger
no the hatchlings from these eggs will
grow up on farms there are still a
hundred thousand Salty’s roaming in the
wild in the Northern Territory
so while trophy hunting is banned the
aussie government allows up to 1200
permits a year to top end hunters who
track down
problem crops I’m worried about to go
for a bit of a recce we need a record
you mean see only crocodile without that
yes and if there is we’re gonna catch
him so it’s great Roger Matthews makes a
living
culling problem Crocs with the help of
his teenage son Brody ok in crib
interaction yep let’s let’s let’s see
what’s out there
[Music]
Rogers being caught out to this ranch to
hunt down a croc that’s been stalking
we drive to a nearby waterhole a place
Salty’s are known to hide out you’d be
surprised how familiar water need a huge
crocodile the Soltys mo is to ambush
their victims and drag them into the
see this this is definitely a crocodile
eww
[Applause]
[Music]
and how’d you know there’s just one in
that you don’t air bubbles and the no
hear that yeah Rodgers spotted the salty
now the hard part is pretty wild
catching it a two-man job reeling in a
croc like this is a half-ton tug-of-war
by law this croc must be humanely put
down okay do you feel bad about having
to do this
I do but also it’s what we have to be
and how he gets paid and how much how
much is a nice trophy Skinner ah a full
meter crocodile this key to be worth
anywhere from five to six thousand
dollars and the skulls of our four
thousand Australian dollars Roger loves
Crocs yet he makes a living hunting them
it’s contradictions like these that
define Australia’s croc conservation
program consider Charlene O’Sullivan her
daughter
Briony was killed by a croc in 2009
now she farms them you serious
absolutely serious not what a lot of
people expect here Charlene’s farm is
called be a Crocs the be a stands for
Briony and it is I guess the legacy
towards for my daughter’s death to her
life as well this is for her
in a capitalistic society it seems
everything can be sold given the right
price even animal conservation
that’sall sees are no longer endangered
is proof for many this commercial model
is working but a stories of commercial
conservation play out around the world
on game reserves in Africa and the
jungles of Southeast Asia the true costs remain to be seen
fiercest hunters on the planet this or
inspiring prehistoric predator has the
strongest animal bite ever recorded and
can measure 20 feet long no doubt it
takes a certain breed of human to live
in the Salty’s habitat but in
Australia’s top end locals have a unique
and surprising method to cope with the
world’s largest reptile here’s Tim
Samuels Down Under
[Music]
it’s rare these days to be able to
celebrate an extinction good news story
but from two years after been close to
disappearing crocodiles hell outnumber
humans in the Northern Territory thanks
to an aggressive conservation campaign
but says the humans around here push
their boundaries crocodile population
pushes back keeping the peace it’s a
good evening a family’s worst nightmare
has come true with strong indications
their 11-year old girl has been taken by
a crocodile charlene o Sullivan’s
daughter brainy went swimming with her
in 2009
Charlene O’Sullivan’s 11 year old
daughter Briony became the 64th recorded
Australian to be killed by a saltwater
crocodile I just remember sitting there
numb thinking what happened this is
where Brian II was swimming with her
seven-year-old sister Beth and two
friends they saw a crocodile tail
splashed the surface and she disappeared
what was your emotional reaction angry
betrayed did anybody else know that they
were crocodiles in the area and if they
did why didn’t they tell her oh it’s my
favorite
and that’s hairdo – does really pop into
your mind daily and I am richer for
having her even if it was for a moment
saltwater crocodiles are like living
dinosaurs with adult males averaging a
size of 17 feet and weighing half a ton
they’re a terrifying predator so much so
that for a long time killing them was a
badge of honor in fact by the 1970s
trophy hunting nearly wiped them out
altogether but 40 years ago a
controversial conservation plan brought
them back from the brink ironically it
was so successful that now it’s Ozzie’s
that feel under threat
so what convinced the folks in the
Northern Territory the so-called top end
to live alongside these deadly beasts
[Music]
behind this whole conservation affair is
one guy a Darwin zoologist the Godfather
of crocodile conservation great and web
most Crocs are a tough sell
crops are as bad as they me they will
rip your arms off your legs off they’ll
eat your children you’ve got to have
good incentives for people to put up
with them we met Graham at Crocodylus
Park the Wildlife Center he founded in
1994 they’re like a maternity nurse
Graham’s been advocating for saltwater
crocodiles or salties since the 70s but
his approach was and is divisive
its aims to get locals to see the
creature not so much as a killer but a
profitable commodity take these eggs
these were laid by the Crocs at the park
Graham and his team have taken them to
sell to commercial farmers to raise for
slaughter
what’s their fate they fight you Joe
gonna need you bite it
I mean he’ll have found some way and the
farm raise them to turn them into
leather goods today the goods and they
Ganymede and Sheva knees and belts and
also to be favored by luxury brands like
Louis Vuitton and Gucci crocodile
leather fetches up to 30 times the price
of cow leather some ms handbags go for
well over a hundred thousand US dollars
[Music]
all told
Ozzy’s auntie’s are a hundred million
u.s. dollar a year industry and that’s a
strong motivation for keeping crock
numbers up does it not feel strange that
you know you are not familiar as it was
just you a conservationist you you’re
wearing your lovingly wearing these eggs
to them yes I can look what we’ve
achieved here we’ve brought the
populations back to carrying capacity
Graham compares salties with another
back in the 70s the global number of
wild tigers was roughly the same as the
number of top-end Salty’s today the
Crocs have bounced back but the tiger
no the hatchlings from these eggs will
grow up on farms there are still a
hundred thousand Salty’s roaming in the
wild in the Northern Territory
so while trophy hunting is banned the
aussie government allows up to 1200
permits a year to top end hunters who
track down
problem crops I’m worried about to go
for a bit of a recce we need a record
you mean see only crocodile without that
yes and if there is we’re gonna catch
him so it’s great Roger Matthews makes a
living
culling problem Crocs with the help of
his teenage son Brody ok in crib
interaction yep let’s let’s let’s see
what’s out there
[Music]
Rogers being caught out to this ranch to
hunt down a croc that’s been stalking
we drive to a nearby waterhole a place
Salty’s are known to hide out you’d be
surprised how familiar water need a huge
crocodile the Soltys mo is to ambush
their victims and drag them into the
see this this is definitely a crocodile
eww
[Applause]
[Music]
and how’d you know there’s just one in
that you don’t air bubbles and the no
hear that yeah Rodgers spotted the salty
now the hard part is pretty wild
catching it a two-man job reeling in a
croc like this is a half-ton tug-of-war
by law this croc must be humanely put
down okay do you feel bad about having
to do this
I do but also it’s what we have to be
and how he gets paid and how much how
much is a nice trophy Skinner ah a full
meter crocodile this key to be worth
anywhere from five to six thousand
dollars and the skulls of our four
thousand Australian dollars Roger loves
Crocs yet he makes a living hunting them
it’s contradictions like these that
define Australia’s croc conservation
program consider Charlene O’Sullivan her
daughter
Briony was killed by a croc in 2009
now she farms them you serious
absolutely serious not what a lot of
people expect here Charlene’s farm is
called be a Crocs the be a stands for
Briony and it is I guess the legacy
towards for my daughter’s death to her
life as well this is for her
in a capitalistic society it seems
everything can be sold given the right
price even animal conservation
that’sall sees are no longer endangered
is proof for many this commercial model
is working but a stories of commercial
conservation play out around the world
on game reserves in Africa and the
jungles of Southeast Asia the true costs remain to be seen
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