Sweetheart the crocodile's legacy lives on as rumours swirl over attacks on the Finniss River

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A legendary 5.1-metre saltwater crocodile, known as Sweetheart, attacked dinghies on the Finniss River in the 1970s. While Sweetheart’s capture made global headlines and is now displayed at the NT Museum, rumours persist that another croc could have been responsible for the attacks. Annabel Bowles reports.

Transcript

00:00For years he struck fear into Territory fishers, attacking boats but sparing their crews.

00:10Sweetheart's capture in 1979 made world headlines, and even in death he's entertaining millions

00:17of Darwin tourists today.

00:19They made such a great cast of him at the museum and he's travelled all over the place

00:25with that.

00:26But the recent death of another famous and massive croc has seen old rumours resurface.

00:33Cassius, once known as the world's largest croc in captivity, was caught in the same

00:38Territory river as Sweetheart and died this year in Queensland.

00:42There's a story where Cassius could have been responsible for some of Sweetheart's excesses.

00:52Cassius was certainly in the size range of the animal that was tipping over the boats.

00:58When Professor Webb and Dr Manolis helped capture Cassius in 1984,

01:03he had injuries that could have been caused by attacking boats.

01:06The top part of his snout was mangled, it had been injured,

01:11may have picked up that injury from grabbing propellers.

01:14But Dr Manolis believes that theory is a total croc.

01:18The moment Sweetheart was removed in 1979,

01:22all attacks on every boat that went into that river just stopped.

01:26Professor Webb agrees it's unlikely Cassius was the real Sweetheart,

01:30but it's rare to catch two crocodiles of that size in the same area.

01:34To catch one was, you know, you really had to outsmart them.

01:38As for Sweetheart's boat attacking tendencies?

01:41So we think that Sweetheart was attacking the propellers thinking it was another crocodile.

01:47Perhaps another case of mistaken identity.

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