Culling crocodiles appears off the table in Queensland after the opposition said it was not policy, despite calls within the Liberal National party for targeted killing of the reptiles amid concerns about their growing numbers in the state’s north.
A representative for the LNP leader, Tim Nicholls, said on Monday that if the party won the next state election it would pursue more proactive removal of crocodiles from populated areas if elected but this did not extend to culls.
This puts the opposition and the Palaszczuk government on the same page on crocodile management, after the shadow environment minister, Christian Rowan, and an LNP backbencher, Jason Costigan, publicly called for serious consideration of culling.
Nicholls had been challenged by the state environment minister, Steven Miles, to “grow a spine” and rule out going to the next election with a culling policy.
The culling debate was revived after photographer Cindy Waldron, 46, was killed by a crocodile at Thornton beach in Daintree national park in May. It was the eighth known fatal attack in 21 years from crocodiles, which have been protected under state law for 42 years.
The high-profile wildlife advocate Terri Irwin joined others on Sunday in condemning calls for culling, saying it was an “incredibly inhumane practice” against an apex predator that was “crucial to the ecosystem”.
“I am involved in the most comprehensive research with saltwater crocodiles ever conducted,” Irwin said. “Science does not support culling crocodiles and it would be a disaster for both human safety and crocodile ecology.
“My husband Steve always said we need to love crocodiles and appreciate them. It is much better to educate people about croc safety than destroy one of our tourism icons.”
Laurence Taplin, an adviser to the environment department’s croc monitoring program, said people should be wary of anecdotal claims of a population explosion given there had been no systematic crocodile surveys for more than a decade.
“The current debate echoes similar controversies in the late 1980s and the science we did back then showed clearly there was a great gulf between anecdotal claims of exploding crocodile populations around Queensland and the reality on the ground,” he said.
Nicholls told the Australian on Sunday an LNP government would “need to be more active in preventing crocodiles from entering popular freshwater swimming areas and at popular beaches and we should not be tolerating crocodiles around boat ramps and marinas”.
A representative for Nicholls later told the newspaper that culling crocodiles was not policy.
Rowan said on 19 October: “We do need to talk about and have a sensible conversation about culling in particular areas”.
Costigan on the same day said: “We need to be looking at a culling program of sorts.”
Miles said on Monday it was “clear [Rowan and Costigan] have been ‘shooting off their mouth’ because they clearly don’t have the support of their leader, who should be pulling them into line”.
“[On Sunday) I called on Mr Nicholls to grow a spine and rule out a cull – and now he has,” Miles said.
Mile said the findings of a recent state government review of crocodile management, including that only 15% of residents supported widespread crocodile removal, undermined calls for a cull.
Wildlife officers have removed 46 crocodiles from the Cairns area so far this year, which Miles said was the highest number ever.
The government was “aware of serious public safety concerns associated with croc country” and its $5.8m in funding over three years to improve crocodile management included a new comprehensive survey of the predators’ population, Miles said.
Miles claimed no government had “ever done more on crocodile management” and had removed more from the Cairns region than any year since the crocodile management scheme was introduced.
He said that up to 17 November 2016, 46 crocs have been removed from the Cairns regional council area and the Palaszczuk government had committed $5.8m over three years to increase and improve crocodile management.
