His name was Kevin Darmody, he was 65, he loved fishing in Queensland, but he was attacked by a crocodile last week. A friend of his testifies. A few days later, the authorities found his dead body in the stomachs of 2 of these protected animals. Australia regularly faces a difficult balancing act to protect these Sauri and protect the population.
According to local authorities, the man went fishing in the waters infested with these reptiles in North Queensland with local residents. The group had to fend off a crocodile to start hunting. Cairns Police Inspector Mark Henderson said witnesses later heard Kevin “screaming, screaming very loudly, followed by a big splash”.
A friend of his, John Beattie, testified in the Cape York Weekly: ” I heard how she screamed about three times and tried to see what was going on… The next minute I heard a loud splash and I ran. I think it only took him half a minute to get to where he was, but there was no sign of him, just a flip flop on the bank and nothing else…. I think maybe Kev yelled at that crocodile and maybe he lost his balance and fell into the water… I don’t think that a crocodile got out of the water and grabbed him because “there was no water on the bank… there was no trace of him—no fishing rod, no hat.” ».
For someone who thinks he is reckless, one of his friends told him: If anyone knows how, they would know that he was always the one advising tourists to be careful. He knew the risks and was not one to take risks »,
Rangers armed with rifles later killed two several-meter-long alligators in Lakefield National Park, where the group had congregated. experiment conducted on two reptiles’ It allowed, unfortunately, the identification of the remains of the missing man said the inspector.
Between 1985 and 2017, 17 non-fatal and eight fatal attacks by saltwater crocodiles occurred in the wild, according to the Queensland government.
This case revives the crocodile problem in Queensland, Australia. They were hunted for a long time, and benefited from protection measures in the 1970s, as a result of which their population increased from 5,000 to 30,000 individuals according to some media outlets. Which is not without posing very big problems in coexistence with humans.
Last year, the Queensland government, in order to better protect the population against such attacks, considered a policy of systematic slaughter of the largest of them, those over 2.40 meters in height.
A cry from experts who believe that culling the most dangerous specimens can create a sense of security among the local population, leading to reckless behaviour. “It only takes one crocodile to attack.” Additionally, while specimens over eight feet tall are certainly the most dangerous, attacks by young crocodiles can result in drowning or fatal injuries, they add.
The government has set up different areas, some where crocodiles are completely protected, some where more than two million people can be shot, some where aggressive crocodiles can be released, some where crocodiles are captured to be released in areas where there are least risks.
