THE HERALD (Harare, Zimbabwe) 06 February 07 City family stays with crocodile for 2 years (Tsitsi Matope)
A Chisipite family stayed with a crocodile for more than two years and built a grand pond attached to their house where the reptile lived like a king and sometimes roamed freely around the yard.
The McFarland family yesterday said they had become obsessed with the male crocodile — which they had given the name "Kwenya" — and would miss it greatly after it was removed by Parks and Wildlife Management Authority officials.
The family will be charged under a section of the Parks and Wildlife Management Act and would be liable to pay a fine of $250.
The crocodile was relocated to an adaptation pond at Lake Chivero last week after it had crawled out from its pond and sneaked into a neighbour’s premises.
During a heavy storm two weeks ago, Kwenya became agitated and frightened and, according to Ms Tess MacFarland, he then sought shelter in a neighbour’s yard.
On the fateful day at around 10pm, the crocodile did the least foreseen thing by digging its way into the adjacent yard and then diving into the swimming, jolting the neighbours from sleep with its loud splashes.
"Our neighbours were roused from sleep by the noise of the crocodile falling into their swimming pool. They then went out to investigate with a torch — only to discover that a creature they had thought was a large frog was actually a crocodile," Ms McFarland said.
She said the now composed and serene crocodile was able to trace its way back home the following morning and crawled back into its pond.
The McFarlands, who own Mungwe Fishing Camp in Kariba, brought the reptile to Harare when it was still very young and were looking after it as a pet.
‘We caught it while fishing and we realised that we had harmed it with the fishing rod. We then took it and decided to create an environment where, to the best of our knowledge, it would be happy," Ms McFarland said.
She said Kwenya was never stressed and, unlike other crocodiles that are not domesticated and have their nails scaling off due to calcium deficiency, he had never lost any of his.
"We respected him and as a result of this and our love, he had grown to like us and even responded if anyone called him by his name. He was very happy here."
Ms MacFarland said the crocodile fed on flesh ranging from frogs, centipedes, snails to fish and had recently developed a liking for chicken and beef.
She said her family had learnt a lot from the crocodile, which had become part of them and spared them the irritation of croaking frogs.
"Can you imagine that all our neighbours had problems with frogs, which croaked the whole night but for more than two years we never had that problem? Kwenya took care of that for us," Ms McFarland said.
The family had constructed two specially-designed ponds, with the one above always in a shade and making it easy for Kwenya to comfortably crawl to the bar from that point.
"He used to sit with us during family gatherings at the bar."
The lower pond, under sunlight most of daytime, is where the crocodile relaxed, opening its mouth wide and catching insects.
It was easy from that point to crawl out and wade into the family’s swimming pool.
The ponds are over two metres deep.
‘We sometimes swam with it. We were not afraid because it was very friendly and used to having people around. We could even hold it," Ms McFarland said.
She sounded overly concerned about the welfare of the crocodile and kept asking Parks officials if Kwenya was coping with his new environment.
"Did you put a name tag on it so that you are able to identify it and determine whether it is growing or when something is wrong?" Ms McFarland asked.
Parks public relations manager Retired Major Edward Mbewe, however, said that although the McFarlands had shown that they loved animals, it was a crime to take an animal away from its natural environment without a permit.
He said the family was welcome to start a crocodile farming project as long as they were licensed.
"They cannot keep a crocodile in a residential area so closely knit together like Chisipite. What the family did is a serious offence that warrants them to be charged under the Parks and Wildlife Management Act," the official said yesterday.
He said animals were supposed to thrive under the natural environment and disturbing this natural process meant going against with the ecosystem.
"We are worried that a family could be so daring to the extent of taking a highly dangerous creature from Kariba and keeping it until it had grown over a metre long.
"This crocodile could have adapted to living with the McFarlands, but it does not mean it was not capable of harming the neighbours. The behaviour of a crocodile is also not predictable. It could have just become vicious one day and attacked someone at the home," Rtd Maj Mbewe said.
He said the authority had observed that an increased number of people were catching wild species from land and water that included fish, monkeys and tortoise and keeping them as pets.
"It has come to our attention that several people, particularly from low-density areas and some plots, catch just about anything from the wilderness apart from the big animals. But when they discover that, for instance, monkeys cannot be tamed, they then call us to take them away."
Rtd Maj Mbewe said the authority had since applied for the fine for such offences to be reviewed from the current $250 to deterrent levels.
"The fine is a mockery to our efforts. We need the offenders to pay a substantial amount that would deter them from taking animals home to make them their personal pets," Rtd Maj Mbewe said.
City family stays with crocodile for 2 years