THIS PHOTOGRAPH WAS THE HARDEST I’ve ever had to
make. As I stood underneath that tree in Australia’s
Northern Territory, I thought about what the salt-
water crocodile hanging from it had lived through.
Born some 50 years ago, the reptile had grown from
a two-and-a-half-ounce hatchling into a 15-foot-long
colossus weighing 1,000 pounds. It hatched toward
the end of a 25-year period of intensive commercial
hunting that had pushed the species to the brink of
extinction. It was the perfect predator, and I feared
that I was somehow celebrating its death.
I made this photograph to commemorate an
epic hunt and the men who took part in it. Some
might assume that because they took its life, the
men standing beside the crocodile have no respect
for the animal. But I’ve learned that it’s possible for
hunters to love the creatures that they kill—and to
be part of a solution that saves a species. This is the
complex situation I wanted to explore when I docu-
mented crocodile hunting for National Geographic.
In 1971 saltwater crocodiles became protected in
the Northern Territory. As part of the government’s
strategy of “incentive-driven conservation,” a set
amount of eggs may be collected from the wild, with
the hatchlings eventually being farmed for their
skin; and a limited number of crocodiles, including
those that have threatened humans, may be hunted
each year. Even with that regulated harvesting, the
wild saltwater crocodile population in the Northern
Territory has grown from about 5,000 in the late
1960s to approximately 100,000 today, a number
scientists say is close to what it once was. To put
this into perspective: Fifty years ago, at the height
of commercial hunting, people would swim in the
region’s rivers and lagoons; now no one dares.BY TREVOR BECK FROSTDeath Comes
for a Crocodile
A PHOTOGRAPHER
CHRONICLES AN EPIC HUNT
FOR A SALTWATER
CROCODILE—A HUNT THAT’S
A SMALL BUT CRUCIAL PART
OF AN ONGOING PLAN TO
SAVE THE SPECIES.
EXPLORE | THROUGH THE LENS
T
38 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC