Background

Left to right: Mark Read, Bindi Thomas, John Holland, Tom Nichols, Mike Letnic, Garry Lindner, Andrew Wood & Robbie Risk.

 

The aim of this project is to track a single Crocodylus porosus, commonly known as the estuarine crocodile, in the Northern Territory, Australia, using satellite technology.  It has been a collaboration between Massey University (New Zealand), the Parks and Wildlife Service, Northern Territory (PWSNT) and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS).  This project is the basis for a Masters degree in Natural Resource Management from Massey University.

A transmitter was attached to the nuchal shield area of the Crocodile just behind its neck, allowing location data to be collected.  This data collection will continue for one year with data being sent on a regular basis from the satellites via an Argos receiving station to a laptop.

By tracking the movements this way, using a Geographic Information System and combining the location data with various other types of meteorological data, it is hoped that a greater understanding of the range of the crocodile will be obtained, thus improving the management of interaction between the species, humans and livestock.

The estuarine crocodile is a shy, semi-aquatic animal with the potential to cause serious harm to anyone in close proximity.  It inhabits reef coastal and inland waterways in the northern and eastern parts of Australia as well as South East Asia.  In Australia, they have been a protected species since 1971, meaning that numbers in the Northern Territory have steadily increased from 3000 to 70,000. This has led to an increase in their range, and in turn an increase in the incidence of interaction with both humans and livestock.  This has lead to ongoing species management problems for Parks and Services all over Australia. 

The crocodile has proven difficult to study using conventional methods such as radio telemetry or direct viewing, due to the aggressiveness of the species and the hostile environments in which they live.  Short distance movements have been recorded using radio telemetry but have been found to be of little practical use.  Because satellite tracking has the capability to capture a substantial amount of data over a longer period of time at regular intervals, it will hopefully be able to capture accurate information on long distance movement patterns without the need to have an observer nearby. This technology is relatively new but is continually improving and becoming more affordable and easier to use. There are already a number of projects that have used this technology for various other species, many with successful results.

 

The following were involved in the project:

Dr John Holland (Head of Natural Resource Mgmt, Massey University, Postgraduate Programme)

Dr Mike Letnic (Wildlife Management Officer, Biodiversity and Conservation, Department of Infrastructure Planning and Environment, Northern Territory Government)

Dr Mark Read (Crocodile Management Unit, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service)

Tom Nichols (Wildlife Ranger, Crocodile Management Unit, Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment, Northern Territory Government)

Garry Lindner (Crocodile Management Officer, Kakadu National Park)

Bindi Thomas (Student, Masters of Applied Science, Natural Resource Management, Massey University)

Andrew Wood (Wildlife Ranger, Crocodile Management Unit, Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment, Northern Territory Government)

Robbie Risk (Wildlife Ranger, Crocodile Management Unit, Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment, Northern Territory Government)

Derek Robertson & Annette Thomas (Vehicle Security)