Reptile & Amphibian Forums

POST-COURIER (Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea) 18 January 07 Reptiles roaming
Crocodiles in Bougainville? Nah, that must be a joke! That was the reaction of Buka Islander Alex Tarihun when he read the front-page story in the Post-Courier last Wednesday of the crocodile which had killed and eaten a mother of four at Selau, on the northern tip of mainland Bougainville on Saturday January 6.
Well, putting the incident into a much clearer perspective, it is seriously not a joke and Bougainvilleans certainly cannot take it for granted that there are no crocodiles in their rivers.
With the killing of Martina Tewei two weeks ago near a riverbank at Selau, Bougainvilleans should no longer think that only the Sepiks are renowned for having killer crocodiles.
Martina’s killer was captured and killed by police last Friday and the discovery of parts of her body in the 4.8 metre long crocodile is evidence that these reptiles are going to pose serious danger to the people.
In the last seven years, the crocodiles have claimed three lives in the area and many more cases may have gone unreported. Bougainvilleans are not used to seeing crocodiles and do not know where and how these killer reptiles live. The islands region is not even linked with breeding or selling or anything to do with crocodiles. They only know that crocodiles live in the Sepik, Gulf and Western provinces.
Not until the reptile struck did the word “pukpuk’’ spring to everyone’s lips even though most have not seen one. The threat is that there may be many more out there, preying for human flesh.
The first known time the crocodiles attacked in Bougainville was in 2000 when a 14-year-old boy was swallowed in a river followed by another recorded case where a man was also killed.
Afterwards the reptile known as Margaret, the mother of the crocodiles, was killed. Margaret was a 10-metre specimen but a much bigger male crocodile called Big Joe is still alive and has been spotted on numerous occasions in the waters of the Buka Passage with fungi and algae growing on his skin.
The killer crocs have been linked to a former plantation owner from Australia, Oscar Bond. He is the only person believed to have bred the crocodiles at Watangu plantation at Siara, west coast Bougainville, when he started establishing himself there in the 1960s.
Reliable sources in Buka say Mr Bond used to have a farm at Siara where he kept crocodiles as pets. He had about 20 of them. At times, he would go around the Kunua road to shoot stray dogs and fed them to the crocodiles, locals said.
The Post-Courier tracked Mr Bond to his home at Toowoomba, near Brisbane, Australia and told him Bougainvilleans were blaming the crocodiles he reared for the deaths of people in Bougainville. But Mr Bond denied having had a pen of crocodiles at his plantation. Instead, he revealed something Bougainvilleans have not known for years.
“Crocodiles were in Bougainville even before I arrived,’’ claimed Mr Bond. “The ones I kept (three of them) were caught from the rivers and put there … I just loved them, that is why I kept them.”
With due respect to the latest victim, Mrs Tewei, the chiefs in Siara told us that the people knew there were crocodiles in the rivers and at times warnings were given to the villagers to be careful when they were near the riverbanks. They said that sometimes there was just no caution shown by the villagers.
Police told us there were many more in the river when they killed the crocodile. They said it would take a long time to get rid of them as there may be many more yet to be spotted. Reports say that crocodiles have been spotted as far as Kunua on Bougainville’s north-west and Buin and Siwai in the south.
Suggestions have been made that the Autonomous Bougainville Government should authorise the mass killing of the crocodiles in the region. Or for a company to get villagers to hunt crocodiles and sell the skins to the company.
Reptiles roaming

"Margaret was a 10-metre specimen but a much bigger male crocodile called Big Joe is still alive "

I dont have a calculator handy, but by my estimate 10 metres is more than 34 feet. And that is the SMALL one! I guess that they dont rely too heavily on factcheckers in PNG. Either that, or their brand of sensationalism makes the Enquirer look respectable.