From ANGUS NICOLL and MARY BRAHAM
Your correspondent reported that, Oliver Schiebe, a game ranger in the
Australian Northern Territory, was pulled into the river by a crocodile he
was capturing, suffering a broken hip and a gouged abdomen in the process
(This Week, 15 May). The technique reported to be used on the crocodile
sounds a bit rough, even for the home of Crocodile Dundee. The crocodile is
harpooned in the neck, then hauled into a boat. Prior to release the head of
the harpoon is removed and antibiotics applied.
Is there poor scholarship here? Are the Australian rangers unaware of the
international literature concerning nontraumatic crocodile capture? We would
cite methods described by Earl in 1954 (capture pen), Chabreck in 1965 (pole
and noose) or Murphy and Fendley in 1974 (trap).
One of the recent additions deserves particular attention. The Kofron method
(1989) consists of an ingenious trap and noose fashioned so that when a
‘croc’ takes a bait (meat or dead dog) a steel loop tightens round its lower
jaw. A team then hauls the reptile ashore securing jaws and legs with rope
while a sack is placed over the head.
After completion of scientific investigations the reptile is released. This
is the tricky bit. The legs and tail are untied and held by team members.
The team leader moves well away with a rope attached to the sack and jaw
binding. Those holding the legs leave one team member (perhaps known as the
‘mug’?) holding the head. At a shout from the leader, the mug drops the head
and runs (like hell). The leader uses the rope to pull off the sack and jaw
binding.
Advertisement
Kofron records that only 10 per cent of specimens feel aggrieved enough to
chase the team and the method is so nontraumatic that some return to sexual
recreation shortly after release (the crocodiles that is). The contrast with
the harpoon technique is profound. Some might say that the response by
ranger Scheibe’s crocodile was fully justified.
Angus Nicoll and
Mary Braham
St Albans, Hertfordshire
