AFP 19 October 05 Australian study finds alcohol linked to croc attacks
Sydney: Almost one in three people bitten by deadly saltwater crocodiles in Australia had been drinking alcohol before the animal attacked, new research has found.
An Australian review of unprovoked crocodile attacks on humans between 1971 and 2004 found that 29 percent of the 62 attacks had involved some alcohol consumption by the victim.
"About one-third of the people who had been attacked had actually been drinking alcohol," study co-author Charlie Manolis told AFP Wednesday.
"But it doesn't mean they were ... (drunk) when they fell into the river -- although it did happen."
Manolis said the research found that crocodiles were opportunistic predators and that when people took risks while in their habitat, they sometimes paid the ultimate price.
"Sometimes when people do drink they throw caution to the wind," he said.
The study, published in the US-based Wilderness Medical Society journal, found that fatal attacks had remained roughly stable at about two per year since the 1970s.
"But the number of non-fatal attacks has increased markedly," Manolis said.
Non-fatal attacks increased sharply from about 0.1 per year between 1971 and 1980 to 3.3 per year from 2001 to 2004, according to the study.
The research found that most attacks (81 percent) occurred while the victim was swimming or wading and that all fatal attacks involved water.
Manolis said the dramatic increase in the saltwater crocodile population since the species was protected in the early 1970s was not necessarily responsible for the increase in attacks.
The number of wild "salties" estimated to live in the Northern Territory has jumped from as few as 3,000 in 1971 to more than 75,000 currently.
But he said because the average size of crocodiles had increased over that time, the animals attacking humans had often changed from a small "hatchling" to a four-metre giant weighing hundreds of kilograms.
Last month a man was killed by a five-metre crocodile while diving near Darwin, five days after a British snorkeller was taken and killed by a croc.
But Manolis does not think culling is the answer.
"It's people being sensible," he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051019/od_afp/australiaanimals_051019173314
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION 18 October 05 Crocs, alcohol a lethal cocktail (Judy Skatssoon)
A crocodile conservation program has resulted in a population boom in northern Australia. But attacks on humans have also increased (Image: Reuters/David Gray)
Almost one in three people attacked by crocodiles were drunk at the time, Australia's most comprehensive review of croc attacks reveals.
The figures show why it's not a good idea to drink too much if you're in or near water in northern Australia, says zoologist Dr Adam Britton of Wildlife Management International, who has co-authored research showing a 30-fold increase in crocodile attacks over the past three decades.
The wild population of the saltwater crocodile Crocodylus porosus in the Northern Territory has increased from just 3000 in 1971, when the species was protected from unregulated hunting, to up to 85,000 today, Britton says.
The population explosion has been accompanied by an increase in attacks.
The research, published in the journal of the Wilderness Medical Society, shows there have been 62 attacks, including 17 fatal ones, in Australia from 1971 to 2004.
The number of non-fatal attacks increased from an average of one in 10 years in 1971-1980 to more than three a year in 2001-2004. Fatal attacks remained stable at one every two years.
The researchers say at least 29% of the attacks they reviewed involved alcohol, as did half of the cases reported in the medical literature.
"Most crocodile attacks could be avoided with a bit of common sense," Britton says.
"Obviously alcohol is the ultimate way of ignoring risk, and clearly alcohol around waterways, particularly at night, is a lethal combination."
Britton says saltwater crocodiles remain threatened in some parts of the world but not in Australia.
"There are now more crocodiles in northern Australia than there have ever been since the 1940s," he says.
"The principal habitat for saltwater crocodiles is tidal rivers and because the population in many of those rivers now is reaching carrying capacity the animals [are] spilling out into marginal habitats, upstream and in coastal areas."
Britton has fitted 21 crocodiles with satellite transmitters to track their movements and learn more about their behaviour.
The Northern Territory government can issue up to 600 licences to shoot crocodiles, Britton says, but only around 250-300 are removed each year because they are considered a threat to human safety.
Earlier this month the federal environment and heritage minister Senator Ian Campbell rejected a call to allow some crocodiles to be shot by commercial trophy hunters.
Everything you wanted to know about crocs
Crocodiles can be traced back 240 million years and modern crocodiles are little different from their ancestors of 100 million years ago.
They have some 66 teeth and a 300 kilogram croc exerts a bite force of just under 1000 kilogram, about the force required to lift a small ute.
Some species of crocodile can move a body length in less than half a second and attacks can occur at the water's edge and even on land, including cases where campers were snatched from their tents as they slept.
Crocodiles have the most highly developed hearing of any reptile, night vision and can detect a droplet of water hitting the surface by pressure waves alone.
They have a four-chambered heart that can divert oxygenated blood to organs where it is most needed, enabling large crocs to stay under water for up to three hours.
Using the so-called "death roll" to tear up prey, crocs can inflict damage similar to major road trauma or war zone injuries, the researchers say.
Britton says crocodiles are important to northern Australia, both as a tourist drawcard and because of their spiritual significance to indigenous people.
http://abc.net.au/science/news/enviro/EnviroRepublish_1483871.htm
