ENVIRONMENT

Recently, a 12-year-old boy was snatched and his friend mauled by a saltwater crocodile in northern Australia. Thirteen people, six of them children, have reportedly been killed by saltwater crocodiles—salties, as they’re locally known—in the area over the past dozen years. (National Geographic News)

Use our resources to better understand saltwater crocodiles, funnel-web spiders, great white sharks, and the rest of Australia’s dangerous fauna.

Discussion Ideas

• Few of North America’s big predators (such as bears) are active during the winter. What makes Australia’s “salties” different? Why do you think they are active right now? (Read step 7 of our activity “The Reason for the Seasons” for a clue.)
  • Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, so it’s the height of the rainy summer (not dry winter) right now. According to the state of Queensland, this is not only the rainy season, when waterholes swell and crocs are closer to human activity, but it’s the middle of crocodile breeding season (September to April).

• Australia’s salties, also known as estuarine crocodiles, are dependent on the brackish water of the region’s watering holes and estuaries. How do you think their feeding habits change during the wet and dry seasons? Take a look at these two photos of salties in Kakadu National Park, where the recent attacks took place, for a clue: summer and winter.
  • Those are awesome photos, aren’t they?
    • In the rainy season, the watering hole is a vibrant ecosystem. The croc has mud and grasses in which to build a nest, and a rich assortment of unfortunate prey species to choose from. (The Nat Geo News article says that salties are “‘opportunistic predators’; they lurk patiently beneath the surface near the water’s edge, waiting for potential prey to come by.” That, of course, is exactly what’s going on with those ducks in the photo.)
    • In the dry season, a watering hole can nearly dry up entirely. Salties, earning their name, can actually live part of the year in the salty ocean or coastal wetlands during this time. At this time, their diet switches to seafood like sharks and other fish.

• The Nat Geo News article says crocodiles belong to a group of reptiles called crocodilians. “The crocodilian group includes crocodiles, alligators, and caiman.” Work through the questions in our media spotlight on “Crocodilian Species Range.” What crocodilian species did the Nat Geo News article not mention?
  • Gharials, the extremely endangered, thin-snouted crocodilian species found only in protected areas of India and Nepal.