I believe that falls squarely under the "thinning the herd" heading..."natural selection" and all that; the dumb being weeded out of the gene pool, etc.
It's horrible a little boy died, but let's be reasonable: it wasn't like he was walking down the road minding his own business and a croc jumped out of a nearby pond and chased him down. No, this kid a) climbs a fence into a croc compound (aka "first mistake") and b) proceeds to beat/antagonize croc with sticks and rocks (the second, and final, error in judgement exhibited by the little Mensa candidate).
WTF do you
think your typical crocodile is going to do under those circumstances? He's not seeing "cute, but dumb, little 9-year-old boy"...instead he sees "quick, easy brunch".
Don't blame the crocs.
I feel bad for the little guy and his parents, but come on...I reserve the bulk of my sympathy for folks who tragically buy the farm through no fault of their own (you know, like people sitting in a classroom on a college campus going about their day and so forth).