Animal-control officers
and residents manage to catch one of the escaped crocodiles, but as many
as 100 escaped their pens.
Patcharapol Panrak
For the second straight year, crocodiles have escaped their pens
as flooding swamped farms on the Eastern Seaboard.
An unknown number of crocs escaped from a privately-run crocodile farm
in Rayong Oct. 3. One was recaptured while others were spotted in
swamps, canals and creeks.
The Nonglalok village office enlisted the help of animal-control
officers and residents to help round up the crocodiles that escaped from
the Khai Sub-District farm.
Nonglalok village Mayor Thiwa Phrominth said the one reptile captured
measured more than a meter in length.
Farm owner Phaibun Yongchaihiran, 67, offered to pay a reward for
recovery of his animal, but, inspecting his farm, officials found that
the concrete tank where it had been held was broken and pieced back
together with zinc sheets and mesh, which obviously didn’t hold.
Paibun estimates that about 70 crocodiles may have escaped, some
juveniles.
Officials said it was not the first time reptiles have escaped Paibun’s
farm. A year ago, employees forgot to lock the gate, allowing a 100 kg.
croc to wander free.
Last year, with Thailand’s epic flooding, also saw hundreds of
crocodiles escape Pattaya’s Million Years Stone Park and Crocodile Farm.
The news sent the area around Soi Siam Country Club into a panic.
Nearly 2,900 of the amphibians - known to swallow whole children as old
as 8 - were in a man-made lake damaged by floods. Rushing water eroded
the reservoir’s walls, creating a cave that ran under the farm’s
perimeter fencing and out into the neighborhood.
While park officials initially said only a few of the crocs escaped,
they later admitted it could be more than 100, enraging neighbors even
further. While dozens were captured over the next two weeks, it is
assumed many never were recaptured.
