BY BRANDON MICHAEL SIDELEAU <\/span><\/p>\n Late last week, the remains of a missing 12-year-old girl were found<\/a> after she was taken by a saltwater crocodile in Australia\u2019s Northern Territory.<\/p>\n The incident occurred in a waterway known as Mango Creek near the community of Nganmarriyanga\/Palumpa in the remote and sparsely populated West Daly region, about 350 kilometers southwest of Darwin.<\/p>\n Understandably, the tragedy elicited a strong reaction from the public \u2013- including debate about crocodile numbers<\/a> in the wild.<\/p>\n I am based in the Northern Territory and have worked extensively in the field of human-crocodile conflict management, including establishing CrocAttack<\/a>, a global open-source database of crocodilian attacks. Amid the emotion surrounding this latest incident, it\u2019s important to remember fatal crocodile attacks are extraordinarily rare in Australia \u2013- and there is no evidence to suggest their numbers are too high.<\/p>\n