Northern Australia’s saltwater crocodiles under investigation following dramatic rise in population

A predatorial population boom has taken place across northern Australia in the past half century — and scientists are now set to look at the ecosystem impacts of the increase in estuarine crocodile numbers.

Researchers from Charles Darwin University (CDU) will lead the project, examining the results of the population recovery since saltwater crocodiles were declared a protected species in 1971.

The numbers are fairly well-known — the estimate has gone from 3,000 in the 1970s to over 100,000 crocodiles in the Northern Territory today.

But ecologist Keller Kopf from CDU’s Research Institute for the…