Precious reptiles: Social engagement and placemaking with saltwater crocodiles (original) (raw)
2014
"The film 'Invasion of the Crocodiles', first shown on BBC Natural World in 2007, took its title from the assertion that ‘Australia’s deadly saltwater crocs are making a dramatic comeback [and] are spreading in alarming numbers’. Publicity for the film stated that ‘hundreds of cattle are being killed, and most worrying of all, attacks on people are increasing every year, often in places where crocs were previously unknown’ (BBC 2007). These brief statements bring up a series of issues central to the idea of ecological invasions, including the distinction between desirable and undesirable animals, and the spatial and temporal dimensions of the concept of invasions. However, in this case the desirable animals are introduced, and the undesirable ones are ‘native’. Crocodilians (crocodiles, alligators and the gharial), while they predate our species by millennia, are often represented as unwelcome intruders. In a sense, they could be regarded as such in this volume, not being ‘invasive aliens’ in any technical sense. In this essay I show that the scientific sub-discipline of invasion biology provides a useful arena for unpacking some of the cultural assumptions bundled up in assertions of ecological ‘invasions’. These attempts to define invasiveness, alienness and nativeness can be utilised to counter misleading popular usages of the term ‘invasions’." This chapter first discusses some key definitions used by invasion ecologists. Temporal and spatial dimensions are central, as is the notion of harm. The discussion of the temporal dimension includes brief histories of crocodilians, and crocodilians and humans, in Australia. The discussion of spatial dimensions also touches on the notion of place, and Australian ideas about nativeness. The discussion of harm focuses on crocodiles as predators, and human–crocodile conflict.