Locals outraged after grim photo of crocodile's severed head in car boot emerges

Yahoo

3 hours ago

WARNING - GRAPHIC IMAGES AND CONTENT: The mystery surrounding the death of a beloved crocodile known to locals as Big John has deepened after a photo of the animal's head loaded into the boot of a car emerged this week.
The crocodile's decapitated body was found in a fishing net dumped on a shore in Yarrabah Bay, a remote community about 50km east of Cairns, two weeks ago, prompting authorities with Queensland's Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation (DETSI) to launch an investigation.
Now, grisly images of the animal's lifeless body are circulating online, further outraging local elders who considered the croc to be a sacred symbol. One of the photos shows a man lying next to the predator's mutilated body after it was loaded onto a trailer, while another appears to show its severed head was placed in the back of an orange hatchback.
It's believed the croc's head was destined for the black market.
'In my mind, it only says that someone was due to actually make a profit out of his death,' Gunggandi Traditional Owner Warren Martens told 7News. 'Otherwise why they just didn't hand the croc, if they trapped it in the net, over to the department?'
Push for successful investigation after latest crocodile death
The sentiment is shared by Community Representation of Crocodiles co-founder Amanda French, who told Yahoo News there have been a number of similar incidents in previous years where people have illegally targeted and decapitated crocs, which she described as a 'real concern'.
'Generally, that's for body parts to sell on the black market, a trophy skull, basically… [that's] what we believe was the outcome for the crocodile in Yarrabah,' she said, likening the incident to another that occurred in Cow Bay, north of Cairns, in 2023.
Despite a $10,000 reward and a lengthy investigation involving the Queensland Government, police and wildlife authorities, no one was ever held responsible, French explained.
'We've sort of got a surge in these incidents of the targeted killing of a protected species, and then we've got no outcome or an investigation that led nowhere,' she said.
'So we really want to see something done at Yarrabah with this incident to ensure that someone is held to account. It's not just the fact that it's a protected species — it's a culturally significant animal to that community and particular members in that community — so we want to see an example made in this situation to show that the Queensland Government has a no tolerance approach to illegally targeting crocodiles.'
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Rangers are working to track down the owner of the car but have not been successful so far, Traditional Owner Vincent Schreiber told The Cairns Post. 'Everyone had gone quiet, and no one wants to talk, but this dark secret has to come out sooner or later,' he said.
Anyone caught killing a saltwater crocodile — which are protected in Queensland — faces a penalty of up to $37,552.
Despite the introduction of new legislation regarding the intentional and unintentional feeding of crocs last year, French told Yahoo not a single fine has been issued, despite a continued 'rise in reckless behaviour', which 'leads to the euthanasia of crocodiles, or the removal of crocodiles from our environment'.
'We've seen lots of videos surfacing online of people baiting crocodiles, which is basically luring them into the shore with a shark on a fishing hook, or feeding crocodiles fish for a photo opportunity — that's the kind of really reckless behaviour that that intentional feeding offence is about.'
French told Yahoo that if DETSI doesn't 'have the investigative resources to follow through' on the latest incident, the Community Representation of Crocodiles would like to see authorities team up with Queensland Police for a 'thorough investigation'.
Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact authorities at 1300 130 372 or complete a wildlife complaint form on the DETSI's website.
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