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Comment by klipt | Hacker News Reader

> Then croc hunting was outlawed in the 70s and croc numbers recovered quickly and their distribution moved southwards to include places like the Daintree over the next decade or so.

So it was a policy choice to increase safety for crocodiles while decreasing safety for humans.

Humans are entirely capable of eradicating crocodile attacks, we just choose not to.

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> Humans are entirely capable of eradicating crocodile attacks, we just choose not to.

Why would you do that. They have been here millions of years before us. Leave them alone?

Probably unwise to try and completely pacify the entire planet.

Possibly. It's interesting to consider that we've already pacified our major predators in other parts of the world.

Think of how many stories warn children about the "big bad wolf" vs how many wolf deaths have you ever heard of?

The stories might be a legacy of times past before we killed off most of the wolves near us.

Find it interesting when human governance systems develop clear psychopathic behaviors. Wild animals -- like salt-water crocodiles -- are their own version of a system and any system with nothing that kicks back against it will expand to fill the known universe as long as there's positive inputs. The idea that you'd allow a tier-one apex predator -- that can average 17 feet in length -- to explode and grow to these numbers and risk the lives of countless people and wildlife is a form of nihilism. You're saying we as humans are less important than a prehistoric reptile that lives off rotting flesh.

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