CrocAttack Podcast with Brandon Sideleau

For this podcast I went to Reddit to see what listeners wanted to hear about. While there were a number of topics that warranted full episodes (which will be done later), I chose a few shorter topics I could quickly cover (in some cases, for a second time). Enjoy!

On this episode I potentially court controversy by discussing some of my issues with the current human-crocodile conflict mitigation and management paradigm. I discuss some of the paradigm paralysis, what I see as some of the major problems, and what might be some solutions for the future. If you want to discuss any of these ideas further or just flat-out disagree with me, please email me at [email protected] for a nuanced discussion.

In this episode I discuss the recent attacks and sightings of wild saltwater crocodiles that have occurred in Bali, Lombok, Java, and some nearby areas. Many people may not realize it, but saltwater crocodiles are native to all of these islands, but were largely eradicated due to hide hunting by the mid-20th Century. Since then, habitat destruction has resulted in very little suitable saltwater crocodile habitat remaining. With recovering crocodile populations in some nearby areas, individual animals are beginning to move out in search of new habitat, resulting in attempts at the recolonization of former habitat, with problematic consequences for both humans and crocodiles.