Controversial crocodile in Australia died from eating plastic bags

Controversial crocodile dies
ABC News 2 Nov 08;

The crocodile that was at the centre of a debate over relocation programs has died in captivity after being transferred from Magnetic Island to Townsville in north Queensland.

The reptile was relocated from Cape York to the Burdekin in April and was caught by rangers after it had been seen on tourist beaches on Magnetic Island.

The Queensland Government has been criticised for moving the crocodile near Townsville and the relocation program is now being reviewed.

Queensland Parks and Wildlife executive director Alan Feely says the crocodile died at a holding facility in Townsville yesterday after eating a large number of plastic bags.


"The crocodile dying from ingesting plastic bags is unrelated to that [relocation] program," he said.

"But we need to have a hard look at how we got to where we were. But separately to that we need to make some good of the death of the crocodile in terms of people being aware of the dangers of littering."

Croc's plastic bags death surprises reef chief
ABC News 3 Nov 08;
The chairman of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) says he is surprised to hear a crocodile swallowed enough plastic bags to kill it.

The crocodile had been relocated from Cape York in far north Queensland and was captured last week after menacing residents in waters around Magnetic Island, off Townsville.

GBRMPA chairman Russell Reicheldt says plastic is one of the biggest pollution problems facing the world's oceans.

"I didn't know it was a problem for crocodiles specifically, you tend to hear it more as a problem for turtles," he said.

"But it ... reinforces our general view that the amount of marine debris in the ocean is too much and it's damaging wildlife."

Plastic bags kill croc found in Australian tourist zone
Yahoo News 3 Nov 08;

SYDNEY (AFP) – A crocodile which was captured after menacing tourist beaches near Australia's World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef has died from eating too many plastic bags, officials said.

Queensland's Environmental Protection Agency announced Sunday that the crocodile died a day after it was captured near Magnetic Island, close to the world famous coral reef which runs along Australia's northeastern coast.

The agency said 25 plastic shopping and garbage bags had been found inside the animal, along with a plastic wine cooler bag and a rubber float.

"Because the material had compacted solidly in its stomach it was unable to digest food," it said in a statement, adding that no animal would have survived with that much plastic compressed into its gut.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said it was surprised that the 3.5 metre (11.5 foot) crocodile had swallowed enough plastic bags, apparently over a long period of time, to kill it.

"I didn't know it was a problem for crocodiles specifically, you tend to hear it more as a problem for turtles," the authority's chairman Russell Reicheldt told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday.

"But it... reinforces our general view that the amount of marine debris in the ocean is too much and it's damaging wildlife."

The crocodile was originally transferred from remote Cape York, near the northernmost point of Australia's east coast, some 1,000 kilometres south to near the populated area of Townsville in a satellite tracking programme.

But the giant reptile swam north and was seen around Magnetic Island, a tourist haven, where local dive operators complained it drove away business.

The relocation programme is now under review.