Police in Australia have killed a crocodile believed to have eaten a man on December 21st..
Rangers shot the 12.5-foot saltwater crocodile near where Brett Mann (22) was snatched from a river on December 21. Mr Mann was killed while swimming with two friends in the Finniss River, about 50 miles south of the territory capital, Darwin.
Searchers had spent the past week on dirt bikes and in helicopters sweeping the area for his body and the crocodile that took him. Torrential rain and floodwaters stalled the search for four days.
Wildlife experts in the search said that after a crocodile was shot it sank then floated to the surface a day or two later when its body bloated with gas.
Examining the crocodile's insides would take a couple of hours, said Karen Elligett of the Northern Territory's Parks and Wildlife Services.
After killing Mr Mann, the crocodile returned to stalk his two friends, who fled up a tree where they perched in terror for 22 hours until a police search team rescued them the following morning. They estimated the creature was about 13 feet long.
Searchers said the crocodile shot yesterday was probably the same one because crocs were territorial and more than one of such size would not inhabit the same area without a battle for supremacy.
Saltwater crocodiles became a protected species in Australia in 1971 after they were nearly wiped out. But protection has led to a population surge and there are now an estimated 100,000 saltwater crocs, sparking calls for a reintroduction of limited hunting.