CAPE TIMES (Cape Town, S Africa) 18 August 05 Catching crocodiles is all in a day's work (Melanie Gosling)
Crocodile researcher Alison Leslie has been chased and bitten by a croc, but she laughs off these experiences as all in a day's work.
What's really important to the University of Stellenbosch scientist is that she has completed the first step in getting a crocodile sanctuary declared in Botswana's Okavango Delta.
"The Nile crocodile is not listed as threatened, but our research suggests it should be. The number of nest sites in the Delta has decreased by a third in the last 15 years.
Fishermen destroy their nests. Crocodile ranchers take their eggs and are not returning enough juveniles to the wild. But the biggest threat is human encroachment.
"This one little section in the Delta, about 24km long, is about the only piece left for a nesting sanctuary," Leslie said on Wednesday.
Botswana's Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Onkokame Mokaila, has set the wheels in motion to have the land declared a sanctuary.
Leslie, who lectures in conservation and ecology, did her doctorate while working at the Natal Parks Board's crocodile research centre in St Lucia.
In the Delta, Leslie and her team also run education programmes for the locals on the value of crocodiles for the environment and for job creation.
"We're also putting a management plan in place for the Botswana government."
Leslie's unafraid of crocs but respects them
Ten graduate students work for her - five are based full-time in the Delta.
They have tagged over 1 500 crocodiles, which have been sexed, measured and had blood, urine and tissue samples taken. All this is done without drugging the animals.
"Catching a croc is not as difficult as it sounds. Or perhaps we're just nuts," she laughs.
The team works at night from a boat. They throw a noose around the croc's neck and pull it on board.
"We throw a wet towel over its head, someone falls on to it and ties up the jaw. It doesn't take much to keep a croc's jaw closed.
"A couple of rubber bands will do. It sounds dramatic, but it's not really. With crocs larger than 4.5m, we use baited cage traps.
"Once it's inside, we get a noose around its neck, let it out and then it starts to spin, which is a sign of stress, and it literally wraps itself up in rope. Then you can pull it into the boat. Sometimes you have to work in knee-deep water."
Sexing crocs can only be done by an internal examination.
"You just roll it over and feel inside with a gloved hand."
Leslie's unafraid of crocs but respects them. When one bit her, she was the first to blame herself.
"I should have thrown a wet towel at it, but I threw a dry one, which was lighter so gave it that extra moment to turn its head and, well, my hand was dangling there and it bit it.
"The other three in the boat fell on the croc and I remember trying to open its jaw to free my hand.
"I don't really know how I got it out, but at times like that you just go into firing mode. I was very lucky."
Catching crocodiles is all in a day's work