Hi Peter
My semi-traditional relatives have told me all sorts of tales about Ginga,
but I've never heard of a saltie actually launching itself upon an unwary
hiker, in the woodlands. Neither would a crocodile away from water be
intent on feeding. However, they might attack if disturbed.
On on occasion a colleague and I crossed a dried up stream bed while
carrying out a survey. He approached a 3 m. crocodile lying there,
thinking it was dead, and it lunged at him. This was a freshie, but I
should imagine a saltie would behave similarly.
Some years ago a student carrying out a survey in monsoon forest some way
from deep water, was sitting down writing up notes when she looked up to
see a large crocodile stalking her. And where monsoon (or paperbark) forest
floods, crocodiles move in with the water. So there's reason to be careful
there too.
The Mirrar, traditional owners of Kakadu, worry about visitors and their
behaviour around crocodiles. Yvonne Margarula, a senior traditional
custodian, wrote an article about this topic for the Baby Dreaming
newsletter some years ago, saying just that.
Denise
on 21/5/10 4:46 PM, Peter Shute at wrote:
> "Also, in the dry crocodiles can be found quite a long way from water."
>
> Denise, do crocodiles actually attack far from water, or is the danger mainly
> of walking right into one?
>
> Peter Shute
>
>
> --------------------------
> Sent using BlackBerry
>
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