A 1.2m freshwater crocodile has been found dead in a suburban park in Melbourne’s east.
Bird-watcher and photographer Andrew Wallis was strolling in Ruffey Lake Park in Templestowe on Monday when he found the reptile in long grass near some small ponds.
“I could just smell this pungent odour and assumed someone had caught a fish and left it to rot,” Wallis told the ABC. “Lo and behold it was a crocodile.”
He said the crocodile’s feet had been chewed, possibly by foxes from a nearby burrow.
Male freshwater crocodiles can grow up to three metres and are ordinarily found across Australia’s north – but not in suburban Melbourne.
