The Numbers, and Where They Come From

Numbers around crocodile attacks get exaggerated in both directions, so here is the honest picture for this half of the world, with the sources named. Hold on to two things before any figure. Just two. Attacks in remote rivers and villages are badly underreported, so every worldwide and regional total is a floor, not a ceiling. And a bite is not a death: most recorded attacks are survivable, and the fatal ones are the minority. Where this chapter gives a count it gives it as an order of magnitude, because for animals that kill people in places without a coroner or a news crew, precise annual figures do not exist, and anyone who quotes you one to the person is guessing.

Where the figures come from

The standard global repository is the CrocAttack database (the successor to the long-running CrocBITE project), maintained through Charles Darwin University. Range, population and status figures come from the IUCN Crocodile Specialist Group and from national authorities, chiefly the Northern Territory's parks and wildlife service in Australia. Those are the sources to trust here. Trust them precisely because they are honest about being incomplete.