Crocodile moves into backyard pool after Cyclone Jasper

A north Queensland man has shared footage of the moment he realised there was a crocodile in his backyard swimming pool after Cyclone Jasper. VIDEO

A Townsville man and his kids made a surprising discovery in their backyard as they began their clean up after Cyclone Jasper hit north Queensland.

Tyrone Gawthorne was filming his damaged fence at one of his far north Queensland properties hit by Jasper when the kids began yelling to their father, screaming “Dad there’s a croc in the pool!”

A family finds a croc in the family swimming pool after returning to house after FNQ weather event.

Mr Gawthorne can be seen approaching the pool in disbelief stating “bullsh-t” and “no, that’s a toy” before swearing in shock as he spotted the baby croc at the bottom of his pool.

The video was shared to his social media, captioning the post “be croc wise after the floods ... North Queensland living. First day home to fix the fences, and look what’s moved in.”

Mr Gawthorne proceeded to dip the camera underwater to get a better look at the creature, before diving in and attempting to grab the croc as it snapped at him.

The original video has racked up over 2.7 million views and over 30 thousand likes.

A family finds a croc in the family swimming pool after returning to house after FNQ weather event.

In a follow up video, Mr Gawthorne showed him successfully holding the croc out of the pool, before releasing the little guy back to the wild, captioning the post “back to his billabong”.

A Department of Environment, Science and Innovation spokesperson said they had seen and reviewed the video of Mr Gawthorne removing the crocodile from the backyard pool.

“Crocodiles occasionally take refuge in backyard pools, particularly during inclement weather,” the spokesperson said.

Mr Gawthorne jumped into the pool and grabbed the baby croc with his bare hands. Picture: Instagram

“Catching or attempting to catch crocodiles of any size is foolish and risky behaviour ... crocodiles, including juvenile animals have very sharp teeth and extremely strong jaws.”

They added that people should never provoke, harass or interfere with crocodiles.

“People who discover a crocodile in their backyard pool should immediately call wildlife officers ... and keep clear of the animal.”