DNA testing may very well be the newest device to assist park rangers observe down elusive crocodiles in tropical north Queensland.
Researchers from the College of Canberra have developed a method that may detect minute quantities of a crocodile’s mitochondrial DNA in water samples.
The hope is the method can be utilized in future to determine which waterways have crocs with no need to sight them.
There have been 13 crocodile assaults on people within the final 5 years in Queensland, in response to the state’s Division of Setting, Science and Innovation (DESI). Three of them had been deadly, with deaths together with a 16-year-old boy who was killed in waters off the Saibai Island within the Torres Strait in April, and a fisher killed by two crocodiles in 2021.
DESI, which backed the analysis, hopes to have the ability to use the brand new method.
The DESI program coordinator Simon Sales space mentioned crocodiles can generally show elusive, even to extremely skilled wildlife officers conducting standard land or vessel-based surveys.
“This program is in the preliminary phase, but if the research program is successful, wildlife officers could take water samples to detect crocodiles in waterways that are hard to access, or areas the public use regularly such as swimming holes,” he mentioned.
“We’re hoping the research project will allow us to reliably test water samples to detect the presence of crocodiles.”
The method makes use of so-called “environmental” DNA: hint quantities shed into waterways by sloughed pores and skin cells, faeces or urine.
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The UC researchers Dr Peta Hill and Dr Elise Furlan performed trials to detect DNA in water samples collected from crocodile holding ponds on the division facility in Cairns, and in contrast them with management samples of water that had not contained crocodiles.
“We will use these trials to confirm estuarine crocodiles having been present in those ponds,” Hill mentioned.
They plan to conduct additional sampling to grasp DNA degradation over time.
Sales space mentioned investigations into the usage of DNA for detection had been anticipated to proceed for an additional 12 months, “but initial results are promising”.
“Captive trials are now under way at the DESI facility to analyse how long a crocodile has to be present in a body of water until we can detect it, and how long after it has left do we continue detect its DNA,” he mentioned.
The College of Canberra researchers used samples collected from animals all through Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory to map the DNA of estuarine crocodiles.
