The world’s largest crocodile living in captivity has now died. The crocodile was housed in Bunawon, Philippines in an eco-tourism park built to house the creature, which weighed over a ton and was measured at 20.24 feet long. It shouldn’t be a huge surprise that the crocodile kicked the bucket, since he was estimated to be over 50 years old, but for the town of Bunawon, the event was a tragedy.
The large crocodile had become somewhat of a tourist attraction in the town of 37,000 people. After the Guinness Book of World Records came round and determined the it was the largest living in captivity, the province located southeast of Manila began collecting money from tourists who came from many miles to see the beast. According to USA Today, veterinarians attempted to revive the crocodile using tepid water, but those efforts did not work.
The story about the crocodile returning from captivity is not really a pleasant one. The creature was captured after a young child and a fisherman went missing, although it has not been ascertained if the large crocodile was the cause. Steel cable traps were used to capture the heavy crocodile, but villagers in the area actually had to haul the creature out of the water with a rope and lift it into a truck. It took over 100 volunteers to get the crocodile into captivity, but in the time since, the anger over probably eating the young child and the fisherman largely gave way to admiration over the good publicity it brought to the local economy.
Pop Blend’s sincerest thoughts go out to anyone touched by the crocodile’s life either, on the positive side, because they enjoyed watching it, or, on the negative side, because they had a family member of friend who was (likely) eaten by the beast.
