Another exciting animal that can be spotted in the Yellow Water Billabong is the crocodile; I would argue that the “crocs” bring more tourists to the Billabong than the birds. The baby in the picture is the only wild crocodile I saw in Australia (we were on a boat some 20 meters away).
There are two types of crocodiles in Australia - the freshwater (or freshie) and the saltwater (or saltie as the Aussies like to call them). Both are found in the northern part of the country including the Northern Territory. After years of being hunted, crocodiles are now protected here - the freshwater crocodiles since 1964 and the saltwater crocodiles since 1975.
The smaller freshwater crocodile is endemic to Australia and is found in freshwater rivers and billabongs, while the larger saltwater crocodile that originally comes from South-East Asia can be found in any body of water, fresh or salt. The books say that the freshwater crocodiles (they have narrower snouts and rarely exceed 3m in length) are harmless to people unless provoked, but saltwater crocodiles (they can grow to 7m and more) can actually be dangerous.
The croc in the picture is a freshie – so - if the books don't lie, we were perfectly safe on that boat.
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