UQ wrestles crocs with Australia Zoo

The University of Queensland has continued its collaboration with Australia Zoo, capturing and tagging 15 large estuarine crocodiles in Far North Queensland in August.

Professor Craig Franklin, within the School of Integrative Biology, said in the sixth year of the team's monitoring program, it had once again broken new ground in crocodile research.

Professor Franklin worked with a team of 20 experts from Australia Zoo on the 135,000-hectare Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve, 60km north-east of Weipa on Queensland's Cape York Peninsula.

He said small transmitters were surgically inserted beneath the crocodile's skin to allow for data collection and tracking of the animals, which continue to be threatened by illegal hunting.

“This long term study will provide us with detailed knowledge of the behaviour and habitat use of these enigmatic animals that is presently not known,” he said.

The team also looked at the movement patterns of file snakes and undertook preliminary research of the Reserve's Bauxite Perched Springs.

Professor Franklin said the Reserve, which borders the Wenlock and Ducie Rivers, was an area poorly understood by the scientific world but of huge conservation significance.

“There are no less than 35 distinct ecosystems on the Steve Irwin Reserve providing habitats for flora and fauna that have possibly not been previously identified and the Wenlock River has the greatest biodiversity of fish in Australia,” he said.

“Discovering the ecological role of the Reserve's Bauxite Perched Springs is a key research priority as they are home to a number of threatened species.”

Professor Franklin, who is an Australian Professorial Fellow, said he was pleased to be able to continue the work begun six years ago with Steve Irwin funded by Australia Zoo and an ARC-linkage grant, and will travel to the Reserve again in November.