15,000 Farm-raised Crocodiles Escape in South Africa

[KamaAina]

http://www.care2.com/causes/thousands-far-raised-crocodiles-escape-in-south-africa.html

15,000 crocodiles escaped from a farm in South Africa after the Limpopo River flooded, the result of extremely heavy rains. The owners of the Rakwena Crocodile Farm say they had no choice but to open flood gates or the pressure from the accumulating water would have crushed the animals....

At least half the crocodiles are so far avoiding the fate of being made into a fashion accessory. About 2,000 have been recaptured but as many as 10,000 remain free near the dense bush and in the Limpopo, which is the second largest river in South Africa.

Farm workers are searching for the crocodiles at night as their eyes glow red in the dark and they are more active night. Most of the crocodiles are small, about 2.5 meters (about 8.2 feet) long, and about 3 or 4 years old. As farm spokesman Zane Langsman says in AFP, “we just basically jump on their backs and tie them up, load them up and taking them back to enclosures.” The bigger ones are caught by tying straps around their mouths, tying their legs and then injecting them with a “solution that’s basically a muscle-relaxant,” says Langsman.

A police spokesman for Limpopo province (in the far north of South Africa) says that villagers have been warned not to try and capture them. So far, no attacks by crocodiles have been reported and neither the police nor the army have yet been summoned to assist the workers. Some crocodiles were found on a school rugby field in Muskina, which is about 120 kilometers from the Rakwena farm and on the border with Zimbabwe.

Yikes!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. What does the crocodile have for dinner?

Said the Elephant's Child:

"My father has spanked me, and my mother has spanked me; all my aunts and uncles have spanked me for my 'satiable curtiosity; and still I want to know what the Crocodile has for dinner!"

Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, "Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out."

[csziggy]

2. One of my favorite bedtime stories when I was a kid!

Dad read all the Just So Stories to me out of the book his father read to him when he was a child. Thanks for bringing back those memories!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Me, too! That's why I instantly thought of it

when I read the crocodile post. My dad would read it to me when I was little, too - and I thought The Elephant's Child and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi were the best stories ever.

[RedCloud]

4. What a crock!

[sakabatou]

5. ...