MANILA, Philippines - Relieved Filipino villagers threw a fiesta when they captured a one-ton crocodile, with about 100 people pulling the feared beast from a creek by rope then hoisting it by crane onto a truck.The crocodile weighing 1,075 kilograms and estimated to be at least 50 years old and is the biggest caught alive in the Philippines in recent years.
The 6.1-metre saltwater crocodile, nicknamed Lolong, is about to become the star attraction of a planned ecotourism
park unless it is upstaged by an even larger reptile that may be still be on the loose.Lolong was trapped over the weekend after a three-week hunt in Bunawan township in Agusan del Sur province, where terrified villagers have reported at least one deadly attack by the huge reptiles..
It was captured alive after a three-week hunt in Bunawan township in Agusan del Sur province, where villagers have been terrified. A child was killed two years ago in the township by a crocodile that was not caught, and a croc is suspected of killing a fisherman missing since July. Villagers witnessed a crocodile killing a water buffalo last month.- Bunawan villagers celebrated after they caught the crocodile. "It was like a feast, so many villagers turned up," Mayor Edwin Cox Elorde said.
Backed by five village hunters a trained Wildlife official Ronnie Sumiller has set 20 steel cable traps with an animal carcass as bait along the creek where the first crocodile was caught and in a nearby vast marshland. He found no human remains when he induced the captured crocodile to vomit.- He said he was also summoned by Bunawan officials two years ago after a huge crocodile attacked and ate a child from a capsized boat in the marshland. The crocodile was not found at the time.
People in the farming town of about 37,000 people have been told to avoid venturing into marshy areas alone at night, Elorde said.- Guinness World Records lists a saltwater crocodile caught in Australia as the largest crocodile in captivity, measuring 17 feet 11.75 inches. Saltwater crocodiles can live for more than 100 years and grow to 7 meters.
Mayor Elorde said he plans to make the captured crocodile "the biggest star" in an ecotourism park to be built to increase awareness of villagers and potential tourists of the vital role the dreaded reptiles play in the ecosystem.Philippine laws strictly prohibit civilians from killing endangered crocodiles, with violators facing up to 12 years in prison and a fine of 1 million pesos ($24,000).
Source: Agency
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