INVASION OF THE CROCODILES - Rethinking Invasion Ecologies from the Environmental Humanities - page 239

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INVASION OF THE CROCODILES
Simon Pooley
The film Invasion of the Crocodiles , 2007, first shown on BBC Natural World in
2007, took its title from the assertion that 'Australia's deadly saltwater crocs are
making a dramatic comeback [and] are spreading in alarming numbers'. Publicity
for the film stated that 'hundreds of cattle are being killed, and most worrying of
all, attacks on people are increasing every year, often in places where crocs were
previously unknown' (BBC, 2007). These brief statements bring up a series of issues
central to the idea of ecological invasions, including the distinction between
desirable and undesirable animals, and the spatial and temporal dimensions of the
concept of invasions. However, in this case the desirable animals are introduced,
and the undesirable ones are 'native'.
Crocodilians (crocodiles, alligators and the gharial), while they predate our
species by millennia, are often represented as unwelcome intruders. In a sense, they
could be regarded as such in this volume, not being 'invasive aliens' in any technical
sense. In this chapter, I show that the scientific sub-discipline of invasion biology
provides a useful arena for unpacking some of the cultural assumptions bundled up
in assertions of ecological 'invasions'. These attempts to define invasiveness,
alienness and nativeness can be used to counter misleading popular usages of the
term 'invasions'.
This chapter first discusses some key definitions used by invasion ecologists.
Temporal and spatial dimensions are central, as is the notion of harm. The
discussion of the temporal dimension includes brief histories of crocodilians,
and crocodilians and humans, in Australia. The discussion of spatial dimensions
also touches on the notion of place, and Australian ideas about nativeness. The
discussion of harm focuses on crocodiles as predators, and human-crocodile
conflict.