In a peculiar turn of events, residents of Bulla, a remote town in Australia’s Northern Territory, have taken revenge on a massive 3.6-meter (11.8-foot) saltwater crocodile by cooking and eating the beast that had been blamed for devouring pets and chasing children in the community.
On Wednesday, Northern Territory Police shot the crocodile after determining it posed a “significant risk to the community.” In a statement, police revealed that the predator “had been stalking and lunging out of the water at children and adults” and had “also reportedly taken multiple community dogs.”
Rather than letting the crocodile go to waste, the community “prepared [it] for a feast in the traditional manner,” according to the police. Before the feast, authorities seized the opportunity to provide local children with an impromptu “crocodile safety session,” which included an “up-close look at the dangers within our waterways.”
Northern Territory Police Sergeant Andrew McBride told public broadcaster ABC that the crocodile was “cooked up into crocodile tail soup, he was on the barbecue, a few of the pieces were wrapped up in banana leaves and cooked underground.” He added, “It was a rather large traditional feast and there were a few full bellies.”
Both saltwater and freshwater crocodiles are protected species in Australia, with hunting banned by federal law since 1971 when poaching had nearly driven them to extinction. Since then, crocodile numbers have rebounded, with the Northern Territory now home to an estimated 100,000 crocodiles, according to the local government.
Wildlife specialist Kristen Hay warned that “any body of water in The Top End may contain large and potentially dangerous crocodiles.” The Northern Territory’s website notes that saltwater crocodiles can grow up to six meters (20 feet), weigh up to a ton, and “will eat just about anything.”
Interactions between crocodiles and humans can be fatal, and park rangers across northern Australia remove hundreds of saltwater crocodiles from populated areas each year. In April, a 16-year-old boy was killed by a crocodile in northern Queensland while attempting to swim to shore after his boat broke down. Last year, the remains of a 64-year-old fisherman were recovered from inside a crocodile, also in Queensland. In January, a nine-year-old boy survived a crocodile attack in the Northern Territory’s Kakadu National Park but was hospitalized with “puncture wounds.”
The unusual response by the Bulla community to the threatening crocodile highlights the ongoing challenges of human-wildlife coexistence in Australia’s remote regions, where dangerous animals like saltwater crocodiles are a constant presence.
