DEEP in the remote outback in Australia’s Top End lurk crocodiles so huge, one of them is said to weigh one massive tonne.
Locals say they’ve been terrorised by this growing gnash of monster reptiles. The crocs have been snapping up horses and livestock, and a few years ago almost took a young boy’s life.
Community elders know there is only one man to help: Matt Wright, a real-life Crocodile Dundee, who they’ve asked to hunt, capture and relocate the ferocious beasts.
And tonight on 60 Minutes at 8:30pm on Channel Nine a gung-ho Peter Stefanovic joins Wright on his wild and risky mission to do just that.
“It was incredible. These crocs are very big and very wild and very dangerous. We got a really close-up view of them all in action,” Stefanovic told news.com.au.
“On the first day we caught about a 10-foot (three-metre) female, but then on the final couple of days we caught the giants — we caught a 16-foot (4.9-metre) male, and then the next day we caught a 17-foot (5.2-metre) male and that was the biggest
It was so big it took us about two hours just to get it out of the trap. It didn’t want to leave the water.”
Stefanovic and the 60 Minutes crew spent a week flying in a helicopter with Wright around waterways in Peppimenarti in remote Northern Territory, about four hours’ drive southwest of Darwin and close to the West Australian border, in sweltering heat and extreme humidity.
He helped Wright and his three-man team set up three caged traps and a giant man-made trap in the wallow of a crocodile-infested lake, using feral pigs to bait the beasts.
The 60 Minutes crew also rigged cameras inside the traps, capturing incredible vision of the thrashing animals.
tefanovic said the experience gave him a whole new appreciation of the ancient reptiles.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for the animal now. It’s an amazing creature,” he said.
“I grew up in Cairns and there are a lot of crocodile farms there but I never really went to them. I wasn’t really interested. But in this job I got to learn a lot more about them — about how they hunt their prey and how they are, close up.
“They’re prehistoric, they’ve survived for so long, and they’re just a force of an animal.
“We had to harpoon the animal and hold its jaw closed to get it out of the water, and it’s twisting and turning and rolling and trying to shake itself loose. It’s got a great, big, powerful tail that it whips around, and it just doesn’t give up so easily. I think it’s an awesome creature.”
But at times Stefanovic found himself a little too close to the crocs for comfort.
“There was one part when we were trying to look out for the really big croc and we didn’t know where it was,” he said.
“I was standing in this wallow, and all of a sudden this snout emerged from about half a metre from where my feet were — and, yeah, I shuddered a little. It was intense.”
Stefanovic said some of the crocs they were after weighed up to 800 kilograms. It took a bulldozer and a forklift to hoist the reptiles out of the water and onto a trailer, which was to take them to Darwin.
The plan was not to kill the animals but move them to a place where they’d be kept and fed, and safely out of the way of the remote indigenous community that felt seriously threatened by them.
Stefanovic explained: “There was a boy who was swimming in the lake a couple of years ago who was taken by a croc. He survived, he was taken around the shoulders I believe, and he lives in that community. That was the closest encounter that one of these crocodiles had with the locals, but it grew from there.
“I think as they get older they’re becoming a little bit more rogue and not really seeing the differences between potential prey.”
Stefanovic said one of the best parts of his adventure was hanging out with Wright, a professional crocodile relocater and the international star of Outback Wrangler on the National Geographic Channel.
Wright kept a pet gecko as a little tyke and as he grew, so too did his passion for reptiles. His current “pet” is a three-legged crocodile named Tripod.
“I enjoyed being in Matt’s company because he is a really likeable fella,” Stefanovic said.
“It was good to see him close up and to see how he goes about catching these crocs because he’s so calm, around them. And these crocs are just metres away — even less than.
“Seeing him in action is quite impressive in how he’s able to control a potentially dangerous or fatal situation with just a stick. Basically, if the animal starts making a fuss in front of him he just bangs his stick to cause a vibration to catch its attention or hit the croc on the snout to bring it under control. It’s amazing how he does it.”
But sometimes even the experts run into trouble. Wright told Stefanovic about his first — and so far, last — full-blown croc attack.
“It happened at the end of the day when he was becoming a bit tired,” Stefanovic explained.
“He was taken by a crocodile, but he was able to wriggle out of it.
“It taught him a lesson: not to ever lose concentration in front of them. While he does have control over the animal it’s very important not to forget where you are and not to lose concentration because a moment can change.
There are an estimated 120,000 crocodiles on the loose in the Northern Territory.
A fiery debate is raging as to what to do with them, if anything at all. Many believe those numbers should be brought down, while others argue the crocs should be left alone, free to carry on as nature intended in their natural habitat.
Stefanovic said Wright was firmly against one of the proposed solutions — a crocodile cull.
“Matt said he doesn’t believe there should be a cull, because (the crocodiles) are getting back to sustainable levels now — they were almost hunted out some 30 years ago,” he said.
“He’s against the cull, he’s against trophy hunting.”
Just as Stefanovic gained a whole new appreciation for crocodiles during his white-knuckle adventure in the Top End, he thinks tonight’s show will give Australians a valuable insight into the remarkable creatures.
It think it will give people a really great idea of the sheer size and power of the animal, but also how magnificent they are. And just how much respect we need to give them,” he said.
“The pictures that (Nine cameraman) Ben Williamson filmed are extraordinary and I think the folks at home will really enjoy the journey that we take them on.
“Everyone had a good time. It was hot: most days it was approaching 40 degrees, the humidity was about 90 per cent, it was dry. Not only was it hot, there were a lot of flies, there were a lot of mosquitoes.
“We were out in Australia’s beautiful bush — I love it out there.”
But is Stefanovic willing to get so close and personal to a massive crocodile again?
“I’d join (Wright’s) team in a flash,” he laughed.
“It was a great adrenaline rush, and if they want me to be part of the team I’d be happy to join. “It was a real life experience that we had out there and something I’ll never forget.”
No comments:
Post a Comment