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Dog-eating crocodile that terrorized Australian town is killed and eaten by residents: “Never a dull moment”
A saltwater crocodile terrorized a remote Australian community by snapping up dogs and lunging at kids — only to meet its end in a feast cooked up by locals. The 12-foot reptile “had been stalking and lunging out of the water at children and adults,” Northern Territory police said in a statement.
“The crocodile had also reportedly taken multiple community dogs.”
Northern Territory Police
After talking to elders and traditional landowners in the Bulla community, police shot and killed the scaly predator on Tuesday, police said.
“The community prepared it for a feast in the traditional manner,” they said.
The crocodile had migrated during floods earlier in the year into a river near homes in the area, about six hours’ drive south of Darwin, police said.
The animal ended up as the main ingredient in various meals, Sergeant Andrew McBride told Australian public broadcaster ABC.
“I believe he was cooked up into crocodile tail soup, it was on the barbecue, a few pieces were wrapped up in banana leaves and cooked underground,” McBride said.
“There was a rather large traditional feast.”
Commander Kylie Anderson said “crocodiles can pose a significant risk to community safety” and praised officers and residents for working closely together to resolve the issue.
“There’s never a dull moment in remote policing,” Anderson said.
The Northern Territory government says it “uses a risk-based strategic management approach to determine the level of management activity” for crocodiles.
Crocodiles are highly mobile, and have periodically had dangerous encounters with people in Australia. Earlier this year, a crocodile jumped on board a fisherman’s boat in Queensland while the man was fishing at a creek on New Year’s Eve.
Last year, the top politician in Australia’s Northern Territory said it was “time to consider” a return to crocodile culling after an attack at a popular swimming spot.
In May 2023, a man snorkeling off the coast of North Queensland, Australia, was attacked by a crocodile – and survived by prying its jaws off his head. That same month, the remains of an Australian man who went missing on a fishing trip in crocodile-infested waters were found inside two of the reptiles.
Wildlife officials are offering a reward of $103,500 for information as they probe the death of a protected wolf in Arizona.
A female Mexican gray wolf, which is protected by federal law under the Endangered Species Act, was found dead on Nov. 7 in an area northwest of Flagstaff, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Arizona Game and Fish Department said in a joint statement. They have not shared details about the animal’s cause of death but noted that “the mortality was not related to agency management actions.”
Officials said they initially documented the deceased wolf, called F2979, over the summer, when she was captured and given a GPS tracking collar before being released back into the wild in July. The animal was tagged outside the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area, a designated space near Flagstaff where conservation efforts have focused for decades. Following a period in the 1970s when the population of Mexican wolves in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico declined almost to the point of extinction, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service started releasing Mexican wolves born through a breeding program into the conservation area in 1998.
The wolf called F2979 eventually strayed from her pack within the MWEPA, officials said, and efforts to transfer her and a companion back into the management region were underway when the wolf was found dead.
Federal and state wildlife agents have opened an investigation into the incident and they are offering separate rewards for information that leads to the conviction of the person or people responsible for the death of the Mexican wolf. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put forward a prize of up to $50,000, while the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish are offering $1,000 each.
Other organizations and private citizens have pledged additional reward money, amounting to up to $50,500 depending on the information provided in the case, according to the government.
The Western Watersheds Project, a non-profit based in Idaho, said the individual or individuals responsible for the wolf’s death should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The group referred to the animal by the name Hope and shared images of her receiving a health check with her tracking collar.
“In every photo we saw of Hope, her collar was plainly visible. If she was shot, the shooter had to know she wasn’t a coyote,” said Cyndi Tuell, the Arizona and New Mexico director at Western Watersheds Project, in a statement. “If someone killed Hope, the full weight of the federal and state law should be brought to bear against the person or persons who took her away from our human community which found inspiration and joy in her existence, and from the non-human community that depends upon top predators to bring balance to the landscape.”
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