Legions of crocodiles swarm a city, but residents treat the beasts with respect

[depakid]

Not where you might think-


People watch a crocodile in Tampico, Mexico.
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Monsters dwell here.

At least 65 crocodiles throng the 200-acre Laguna Carpintero — Carpenter’s Lake — a short walk from Tampico’s central square.

Unknown legions more thrive in the wetlands and estuaries on the city’s fringe, where new residential neighborhoods march right up to the water’s edge.

“They’ve gone from being just one more inhabitant of the lagoon to being icons of the city,” Mario Castellanos, a municipal biologist, said of the pampered pride of Tampico, an oil refining and port city 250 miles south of the Texas border.

“What we are trying to do,” he said, “is provide them with security.”

The city’s lake offers an extreme example of crocodiles’ increasingly urban lifestyles.

But the predators roam throughout Mexico.

A 2001 census estimated Mexico’s crocodile population at nearly 80,000, distributed along the country’s coasts and sometimes far inland. Hundreds inhabit Cancun’s Nichupte Lagoon, which separates the city from its seafront hotels. Many more live along the Maya Riviera coast south of Cancun. Still others meander around Puerto Vallarta, Zihuatenejo, Acapulco and other destinations.

“There are crocodiles in all the beach areas and coastal marshes,” said Marco Lazcano, a Cancun-based biologist who studies the reptiles. “These species are recovering at the same time that human populations are growing in these areas.”

Though Mexican crocodiles have been found within a few hundred miles of the Rio Grande, none has been spotted in Texas, experts say.

Tampico’s crocs garnered international headlines last summer when an out-of-towner — who witnesses said appeared to be drunk or on drugs — hopped the railing of an observation platform and walked among the animals on a Laguna Carpintero sandbar.

More: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/6299392.html

[valerief]

1. They have crocs, we have bankers, monsters all. nt

[RandomThoughts]

2. Take the words legion and beast out of the story

and I might believe this has some purpose to relay news. As it is worded, its trash.

[depakid]

3. Just passing along what the jouno wrote

and how the editors (or sub editors) at the Houston Chronical wanted it to read like.

Interesting thoughts though- and I suppose that's one reason why I posted the story- to compare and contrast how different cultures see things like crocs.

[RandomThoughts]

6. my comment wasn't directed at you

but on how they use label words that certain groups will pick up on, and how that can create symbols or sub text over many articles. Possibly making it not news about an event, but something else.

But here is the thing, it really is only the opinion from a single writer, but because it is in some news, or if it becomes a meme, people give it some value. Which creates message control.

[Buzz Clik]

4. Hm. I wonder what their standing will be when they start eating pets and children.

[stuntcat]

5. "These species are recovering at the same time that human populations are growing in these areas."

... "crocodiles' increasingly urban lifestyles."

At least they aren't endangered anymore, like the thousands of other animals the humans' are crowding out all over the world.

(I have SO MUCH MORE RESPECT for these animals than ANY bankers.)