Just heard of a crocodile snapping at the hand of a tour guide in the Adelaide River.
This is something that will happen more frequently as the operators tease these reptiles daily to get the tourist Dollars.
I have long stated that this is a highly irresponsible practise & really needs to be banned. Sooner or later a large animal will drag a person to their death as the crocodiles associate water craft with daily food dispensing.
Larger crocs that have been encouraged by the operators to leap up for anything dangling off a boat & in this last case it was an operator leaning over the side to retrieve something.
Crocodiles do naturally leap up but not as frequently as they're being encouraged to now. As they grow & require their own territory, some of the conditioned animals will migrate to other locations & it is only a matter of time before a tragedy occurs due to the conditioning.
The Potato Cod of a particular section of the GBR were constantly fed & conditioned by dive tour operators until they became dangerously aggressive towards divers who didn't have food to distribute for the fish. I don't know the validity of the claim but I have been told that these Cod were disposed of by a Govt Authority because they became a serious danger.
people really need to stop manipulating wild animals on a frequent basis !

Agree. Crocodiles should be left alone, or shot out, depending on your mindset.

Dear individual,

I spent many a childhood weekend camping and swimming in that river. This was back when crocs were being shot. As a 12 year old I would go with a croc hunter and spotlight young juveniles grabbing them to put them into the dingy. At night we would hear the big crocs entering the water from the far bank.

I wouldn't even put a toenail in there now.

individual,

I fully agree. People should not teach animals to
behave aggressively and then blame them for doing so.
It all comes down to taking responsibility for your
actions. The tourism industry has a lot to answer
in this regard.

Man is the only species that protects it's predators. This is a result of too many people living in huge cities, so far from the real world they have no idea of the real world, & how dangerous it is.

Many seem to think that wild life in the real world is as safe & user friendly as the potted stuff they see on their TV.

The "progress at any cost" mob have been calling for the culling of crocodiles for years cheered on from the sidelines by the likes of Bob Katter.

Some elements of the tourist industry want visitors to look on in awe as the "bushie" encourages a large croc to launch out of the water to eat that chicken dandling from the rope.

What the tourism industry hates are croc attack stories. For some reason these get a lot of press time.

Far less press time was given, in those pre-covid" times, to the number of usually older overseas tourists who died while snorkelling on the GBR.

Leave the crocs alone. Be cautious in tropical waters.

I wonder where all the croc warning signs that go missing end up? Probably as a conversation piece is someone's pool room.

There is so much nonsense talked about animals, wild or tame. I have use only for those raised for meat. All wild animals that hunter/gatherers relied on are redundant.

Fortunately, I live in South Australia, where the only dangerous animals are snakes and politicians; the politicians being more dangerous than the snakes.

What, crocodiles have moved as far south as Adelaide! Now they're in the river there. What next, Polar Bears in Darwin?

Seriously, good take on the problem Indy, can only agree with you.

We do need crocodiles in the rivers though, they barge through water weed and keep the rivers open, the trick is to leave them to it, although when the numbers are up I think that they should be taken for meat and skins, but keep the tourists well away.

Issy, any chance you might volunteer to don the wet suit and go in and clear that weed, give the crocs a day off? Only if they promise not to bite of course.

Paul,
Any chance you might grow up?

Sorry, you must be in your second childhood, of course.

"I wonder where all the croc warning signs that go missing end up? Probably as a conversation piece is someone's pool room".

What they should be used for is fire wood for the bar-b-ques that cooked the croc stakes.

I was watching people standing ankle-deep in water, fishing on a fairly steep riverbank a couple of hours ago.
The crocodile warning sign was about 10 metres behind them.
The river has crocodile tours daily !
As the weather is now turning towards very warm, the crocs will become active within days.