A 12-year-old girl was killed by a 14-foot crocodile in northern Australia last week when she was swimming with her family, according to authorities on Wednesday. The crocodile was shot dead by rangers.
The girl died from a crocodile attack, the first in the Northern Territory since a woman of Indigenous descent was killed in 2018 while collecting mussels in a river. The incident has reignited discussions about whether more needs to be done to reduce the number of crocodiles in the Northern Territory, where the endangered species is encroaching on human settlements.
Since the girl was assaulted last week in Mango Creek, near Palumpa, an Outback Indigenous settlement in the Northern Territory, wildlife rangers have been trying to trap or shoot the crocodile.
With consent from the customary landowners in the area, they shot the animal on Sunday. Many Indigenous Australians view saltwater crocodiles as a totem.
Analysis, according to the police, proved the animal killed the girl.
Senior Sgt. Erica Gibson stated in the police statement, “The family has been greatly affected by the events of the previous week, and everyone affected is still receiving support from the local police.”
According to crocodile expert Grahame Webb of the Northern Territory, a reptile with the size of the one shot had to be male and at least thirty years old. They have a lifespan of up to 70 years and continue to grow throughout.
The girl passed away a few weeks after the Northern Territory authorized a 10-year plan to reduce the number of crocodiles, increasing the annual rate of killing from 300 to 1,200 near human habitat.
Following the most recent death, the administration of the Northern Territory declared that crocodiles could never outnumber people.
With a land area roughly equivalent to the combined areas of France and Spain, the Northern Territory is home to just 250,000 people. The estimated population of crocodiles is 100,000. Before killing crocodiles was banned by federal law in 1971, the number of these animals had dropped as low as 3,000.
According to Webb, the crocs in the area have killed one another for food or territory in recent years, which has helped to stabilize their own population. They consume one another. The population of crocs has been under their control. According to Webb, “people haven’t really been controlling them.”