300kg croc captured in Darwin river

Last Update: Tuesday, November 7, 2006. 6:32pm (AEDT)

A 3.7 metre saltwater crocodile has been captured in the Howard River at Howard Springs, south-east of Darwin.

Parks and Wildlife ranger Tommy Nichols says the male weighed more than 300 kilograms and took several staff to remove from the trap.

Mr Nichols says they have been on the look out for the saltie after finding a number of females over the past few weeks.

"We got another one out of there on Friday, which was a 2.7 metre female," he said.

"We've also taken two other females out of there so it's been a quite a productive little area."

He says removing it was quite an effort.

"Two of us had a hard time lifting him, so we had a couple of other blokes turn up and they gave us a hand," he said.

"He was a very cranky animal and I gave him some drugs, but he was still quite cranky."

The saltie was taken to the NT Crocodile Farm at Noonamah.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200611/s1783261.htm