With a permit from the Indonesian government in hand, Australian TV presenter and crocodile expert Matthew Nicholas Wright returned to Palu, Central Sulawesi, on Tuesday to rescue a wild crocodile that has had a motorcycle tire caught around its neck for years. Together with fellow crocodile observer Chris Wilson, Wright set a trap on the Palu River on the first day of his attempt to catch the reptile where it lives.

The Australians flew from their outback to join a special rescue team formed by the Central Sulawesi Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) and the Environment and Forestry Ministry.

In an Instagram story on his account @mattwright on Tuesday, Wright, who has a show on the National Geographic TV channel called Outback Wrangler, was seen standing on the side of the Palu River while pointing at the 4-meter-long crocodile hiding behind a rock. He also joined the BKSDA team to finalize plans and prepare a wire trap and floating drums.

“Everything is looking very good here at the moment. The trap is coming together,” said Wright. “It has been a big day at the BKSDA. As we finish the trap, we’ll load it up to the river.”

After first going to Palu on the weekend to scope out the river and his prey, Wright flew to Jakarta on Monday to meet and coordinate with Indonesian officials.

In Instagram posts earlier this month, Wright said he had been following the stories of this trapped crocodile for the past 18 months and had been trying his best to work out the best window of opportunity to go to Palu and help relieve the crocodile of its tight choker.

“We have been talking closely with Indonesian officials, including the Environment and Forestry Ministry and associated local organizations,” said Wright in his post.

"We’ll be able to develop a cracking plan once we’ve seen what environmental challenges we have to overcome in this area."

The participation of the two Australians is based on a decree issued by the ministry on Monday to BKSDA Central Sulawesi, into whose operational control the crocodile rescue team has been entrusted.

“After consulting with the ministry’s Biodiversity Conservation Directorate General, both of them were allowed to immediately join the rescue team,” Haruna, a BKSDA Central Sulawesi official, told reporters on Monday.

The 4-m-long reptile was first seen swimming with the tire around its neck in 2016.

The crocodile was regularly spotted swimming in the water connecting the Palu River to Palu Bay. Officials and conservationists previously tried but failed to catch it.

On the scene: Australian wildlife experts Matthew Nicolas Wright (left) and Chris Wilson examine on Tuesday a location on the Palu River in Central Sulawesi. The two conservation experts arrived in Palu to help the Central Sulawesi Natural Resources Agency in its bid to rescue an endangered crocodile. (Antara/Mohamad Hamzah)

Locals believe the crocodile was frightened off because every time there was a rescue attempt, dozens of curious Palu residents swarmed around the river to watch the process.

In 2018, M. Panji, better known as “Panji the Adventurer”, an animal handler and tamer who is known from his stint on the Adventures of Panji national television show, attempted to catch the crocodile but failed.

In January, Central Sulawesi Governor Longki Djanggola warned the agency to immediately rescue the crocodile because the motorcycle tire had been stuck on the crocodile’s neck for too long and might endanger its life.

“I am surprised. I have repeatedly told [the agency] to rescue the crocodile, but the instruction seems to have been ignored. This time I emphasize that we must act immediately or I will act myself,” said Longki.

"The BKSDA has a lot of work to do, part of it being [the search for] the missing crocodile with the tire," Longki said. "This year it must be caught so that it can be released from the tire."

Following that order, the agency held a contest for anyone who was willing to catch the crocodile, promising a prize as a reward, as a result of its limited resources.

The contest, however, was later canceled after the agency failed to gain a positive response, so it prepared a special team with the assistance of the Environment and Forestry Ministry.

BKSDA Central Sulawesi then coordinated with a number of parties volunteering to join the rescue team, including crocodile observers Wright and Wilson.

The team includes members from the police and it has installed nets at several points in the Palu River in the past week, which have so far failed to capture the crocodile.

"We might be able to capture the crocodile if people do not gather around to watch it, because it might make the crocodile afraid to come to the surface,” said Haruna. (syk)