Conservationist David White, who owns the popular Solar Whisper Daintree River Crocodile & Wildlife Cruises, said on Newsport’s Facebook page that he doesn’t believe the croc was attacked by a rival croc or a shark.

“I don’t believe that is the case at all, their head is the hardest part of them, the legs or tail would be damaged, there is no damage to the animal like there is in a fight. It’s a clean cut,” Mr White posted.

“I know it’s rotten and swollen and had fish nibbling at it, but to severe (sic) that skull with no other injuries other than a machete straight strike on the back, I don’t believe that was done by another animal.”

Another conservationist and keen crocodile photographer, Tommy Hayes, made a trip to inspect the Cow Bay croc’s body after hearing what he regarded as “devastating” news.

“It was pretty distressing being up there, I just sat with him for ages.. poor old man,” he told Newsport.

“Local fella I spoke to was absolutely heartbroken by it and furious,” he said.

“This is a World Heritage rainforest. It’s insane.”

Another poster commented “need a cull anyway”, which unsurprisingly brought further angry reaction on our page.

The Department of Environment and Science told us on Friday that its officers were on the way to inspect the crocodile carcass.

"Wildlife officers are on their way to inspect the carcass this afternoon. The results of this inspection will determine the Department’s next steps," a DES spokesperson said via email.

But Mr Hayes has disputed the statement that officers had actually gone to Cow Bay, saying local residents had kept in touch and said that no one arrived to inspect the dead croc.

“Locals waited for the DES to turn up but they didn’t so they have since buried the croc,” he said, “which was the right thing to do by it.”

We have sought further comment from the DES.