A Young Crocodile's Adventure: Rescued After 30 Hours
A young freshwater crocodile, yet to be named, had an adventurous weekend traveling down a suburban creek in Australia, far from its tropical origins. The reptile was captured on Sunday night in a delicate operation in Ironbark Creek, Newcastle, after being first spotted behind a Bunnings store in Wallsend on Saturday afternoon.
The police called in the manager of the nearby Australian Reptile Park, Billy Collett, and his team to assist in the capture. However, repeated attempts to grab the metre-long crocodile from the creekside pond proved challenging. Collett and his team returned on Sunday night with a tinny boat, paddles, head torches, and a high level of patience.
Despite their efforts, they couldn't find the crocodile on Sunday. As they were about to reach the Hunter Wetlands three kilometres downstream, they spotted the croc's eye sign. Collett quietly paddled over and, in a swift move, did a swan dive off the boat, got under the crocodile, grabbed it, and secured it.
The reptile park shared an image of an exuberant Collett chest-deep in the creek with the rescued crocodile on Monday afternoon. The park's vet team gave the creature a clean bill of health, and it is currently in quarantine at the Central Coast park under staff care while authorities investigate how it ended up in NSW's second-largest city.
Collett believes the unnamed crocodile would not have survived in the salty creek, especially with winter approaching. Alex Martinovich, the marketing manager of the Australian Reptile Park, suggests that the crocodile had likely been dumped after being someone's illegal pet. She explained that people often get these pets because they think it will be cool, but a metre-long crocodile, even a freshwater one, is a pretty big animal.
