A New Zealand tourist who claims to have seen a saltwater crocodile in an Australian canal did not alert authorities and instead sent a photo to the local newspaper.
The Gold Coast Bulletin on Thursday published a photograph of an indistinct object floating in the water, reporting "one of Australia's most feared killers could be stalking the canals of one of the Gold Coast's ritziest suburbs".
New Zealander Anja Prigg told the newspaper she took the photograph on Sunday while at the Hope Island markets with her husband, Chris.
"We saw ducks making really crazy movements, like they were chasing each other. Then I saw this crocodile coming," she told the newspaper.
She was more surprised than scared, she said.
But claims the couple saw a crocodile have been "dismissed outright" by government wildlife experts who analysed the photo.
"It's highly unlikely, to say the least, that the object in the photo is a saltwater crocodile," a spokesman for Queensland sustainability and climate change minister Kate Jones said.
"There is no evidence to suggest it's a croc and the New Zealand tourist who took the picture did not contact the crocodile-sighting hotline and did not alert authorities.
"They simply took their picture to the newspaper."
NZPA