A saltwater crocodile was found wandering in a Melbourne suburb on Christmas day and nobody has any idea how it got there.
The crocodile was first found by a couple of walkers out the front of a business address in the suburb of Heidelberg Heights – a location no where near its natural habitat that is typically a lot more tropical.
The closest location that a saltwater crocodile should be in relation to southeastern Melbourne is some 1,230 miles (1,976km) away in Australia’s tropical north. They are definitely not kept as pets.
(Rasmussen AR, Murphy JC, Ompi M, Gibbons JW, Uetz P (2011) [CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons)
“It’s not known where the croc came from or how it came to be [in] the front yard of the closed business,” said Victorian police in a statement.
Two walkers have had a surprise Christmas visitor – a one metre-long crocodile sitting in the front yard of a Heidelberg Heights property. #7News pic.twitter.com/7i7Pq6LAtU
— 7 News Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) December 25, 2017
The police called in Mark Pelly, a reptile expert, to deal with the situation.
Pelly told radio station 3AW he got a call from the police saying: “there’s a crocodile walking the streets and it’s currently outside a medical center.”
Despite being phoned on Christmas day, Pelly was more than happy to help out.
The one-metre long crocodile was discovered at a Waiora Road home around 8:30pm last night. Police are yet to discover where it came from. #7News pic.twitter.com/zkf30Q90ky
— 7 News Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) December 26, 2017
“This is a phone call I’ve always been waiting for,” Pelly told 3AW. “I found five police members being stared down by a decent sized crocodile, about three-and-a-half foot, and the crocodile wouldn’t back down.”
To catch the reptile, he had a friend try and distract it while he attempted to put something over its eyes.
But the crocodile had other ideas.
“[T]he crocodile was a bit too smart for the both of us and decided to run off into the bush,” Pelley said.
Snake catcher Mark Pelley describes the struggle to capture the crocodile as it tried to make its escape. The reptile will remain in his care until the @DELWP_Vic can collect it. #7News pic.twitter.com/JDIRH0bsHl
— 7 News Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) December 26, 2017
Pelley leaped forward to grab the crocodile by tail, allowing him to pick it up and put it into a box.
Victorian police said the crocodile will remain with Pelly until the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning can collect it.
A male saltwater crocodile can grow on average up to 4.9 meters (16.1 feet) in length. Commonly known in Australia as “salties,” there are an estimated 100,000 of them in the country’s tropical north. In the past ten years there have been six fatal crocodile attacks in the country. Two of those attacks were this year, reported the ABC.
The power in a crocodile's tail
— Fascinating things (@YupThatExist) December 24, 2017
