THE TIMES (Johannesburg, S Africa) 07 August 08 Croc’s mouth shut with tape
(Sapa) Game rangers are trying to capture a large and especially hungry crocodile near the mouth of Lake St Lucia, the Mercury newspaper reports.
The three-metre long reptile had been starved for at least six weeks after someone taped its jaws shut.
It appeared that the crocodile’s jaws were sealed tightly with two bands of insulating tape before the reptile managed to elude its captors and escape back to the lake.
KZN Wildlife conservation manager Tony Conway told the newspaper that the crocodile was first spotted about six weeks ago near the ski-boat club where visitors sometimes fed crocodiles illegally with scraps of boerewors.
Conway said they had several theories about the perpetrators - including that they were trying to slaughter it and sell its parts for muti, or to sell it to a crocodile breeder.
Ezemvelo says it is now trying to capture the crocodile and several attempts had already failed.
http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=817616
THE TIMES (Johannesburg, S Africa) 08 August 08 Probe into croc cruelty (Nivashni Nair)
A drunken “prankster”, a farmer who wanted to get rid of a crocodile or a poacher could be responsible for taping shut the jaws of a crocodile near the mouth of Lake St Lucia.
Tony Conway, conservation manager of iSimangaliso Wetland Park, told The Times that there were many different accounts of what happened six weeks ago — when the 3m-long crocodile was discovered with its jaws taped up with two pieces of installation tape.
“We have been following a few leads [but the culprit is yet to be found],” he said.
“It was a cruel thing to do to an animal,” Conway said.
He assured the public that the animal was not “hungry” as reported by the media.
“Crocodiles can go without food for a long time, but we are trying our best to capture it, so we can get those tapes off.”
An anti-poaching investigator has been given the job of finding the culprit.
http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=817932
