An “iconic” saltwater crocodile has been transported more than 1,600km to Australia Zoo – made famous by Steve Irwin – almost two months after its controversial removal from its far north Queensland habitat.
But while the Sunshine Coast zoo said it was proud to become the “forever home” of Old Faithful, as the crocodile that measures longer than 4 metres is known, traditional owners said they were “very upset” by the outcome, which conservationists describe as a “cover-up”.
Australia Zoo announced the crocodile had arrived at its facility, near the Glasshouse Mountains of south-east Queensland, via a social media video on Monday morning.
The clip begins with footage of the late Steve Irwin capturing Old Faithful in the waterhole for which he is named in Rinyirru – or Lakefield national park – as portrayed in the mid-1990s television series The Crocodile Hunter.
In that episode, Irwin “hazed” the apex predator, before returning him to his home on the Normanby River, in an effort to instil fear of humans into the big reptile and so avoid conflict with anglers – a pioneering experiment which appears to have been successful for almost two decades.
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But that coexistence unravelled on 8 September when Old Faithful and a second – albeit smaller – crocodile were removed from the river by wildlife officers.
It came after the Queensland environment department said it received reports of the crocodile’s repeated, concerning escalating behaviour “as a direct result of it being fed by people”.
In the social media video, Australia Zoo’s Toby Millyard says the crocodile research team he leads had initially hoped Old Faithful would be released back into its natural habitat.
“Once we heard that he was unreleasable, we jumped in to offer to give him a home because we know that we can give him the best of the best for the rest of his life,” Millyard said.
But the Rinyirru (Lakefield) Aboriginal Corporation chair, Alwyn Lyall, said he was saddened and “pissed off” to learn on Monday morning that this “important and totemic” animal had been taken so far from his country and its traditional owners.
“This crocodile comes from up here in Cape York,” Lyall said. “A zoo is the wrong place for that animal.
“To remove him over the weekend without [any] notice or notification to us traditional owners, or anything – it’s like a thief in the night sort of rubbish?
“We never gave the authority for that to happen.”
Lyall said that if the croc had to be rehomed, he would rather Old Faithful go to a facility in Babinda, less than 400km south, and more accessible to traditional owners. Croc Country Australia also runs training courses with Indigenous rangers, and is home to another icon crocodile removed from Rinyirru.
Its owner, Jesse Crampton, confirmed he had put in an expression of interest to the department to house Old Faithful.
Crampton said he established the facility specifically to meet a “housing crisis” for crocodiles deemed icons under Queensland law – which are longer than 4 metres – but also considered a problem by authorities.
“We’ve got a purpose-built, newly established crocodile facility designed to house icon crocodiles for these kinds of scenarios,” he said.
In September, the Environmental Defenders Office – acting for advocacy group Community Representation of Crocodiles (Croc) – lodged a request for a statement of reasons for Old Faithful’s removal.
Croc’s co-founder Amanda French said the department requested an extension for the request until Wednesday, but had simultaneously “fast-tracked the paperwork and transport logistics” to move Old Faithful. She said this amounted to a “cover-up for mistakes” made in a removal from the wild that lacked “transparency” and “cultural authority”.
She said Old Faithful would no doubt provide “a great commercial opportunity” for the zoo.
“It’s incredibly sad that a crocodile that survived decades in the wild – swimming enormous distances, feeding on whatever he wants, mating with whomever he wants – is now sentenced to a lifetime in [captivity] … for tourists’ [amusement],” French said.
A department spokesperson confirmed the smaller reptile captured along with Old Faithful had been relocated to a crocodile farm in far north Queensland.
