A couple of days ago Bob Skinner passed on some information to me about Chinese Alligators in Shanghai although this report (from Chinacartimes.com on August 7th 2012 of all places) erroneously describes them as Crocodiles.
Forget New York, Shanghai Has Its Own Crocodiles Lurking About.
Rumours about Crocs and Alligators have been doing the rounds in New York for as long as anyone can remember, the problem with New York is that its actually quite cold in the winter so any man eating reptile would have to find a nice warm place to spend the winter. Shanghai is a little different however, it gets cold in winter but not overly so, throw in the fact that exotic wild animals can be bought relatively easily either for dinner or for amusement and you have a potentially dangerous situation
[The creators of this web story don`t seem to realise that the alligator is/was a native of the Yangtze which joins the E.China sea at Shanghai).
Shanghai Daily has an interesting story on the third crocodile caught in Shanghai`s creeks and rivers this year:
“Wild animal protection authorities said they caught a 1.5m long crocodile in a creek in a suburban residential area after terrified residents saw it swimming near the creek bank yesterday afternoon.
It is the third crocodile that officials said they have caught in the Pudong New Area this year.
The crocodile was seen by residents swimming in a creek near a supermarket on Changqing Road in Pudong at about 2pm yesterday. The unusual scene attracted a group of residents to a nearby bridge to watch, witnesses said.
“I was going home after shopping at that supermarket when I suddenly saw it under the bridge”, said a witness surnamed Wang. “ At first I thought it was just a big black fish but when its head floated onto the waters surface – I realized it was a crocodile!”
An official surnamed Tang with the Pudong Wild Animal Protection Station told Shanghai Daily at first they tried to use a tool to clamp down on the crocodile`s head.But the crocodile went below the surface. Tang said.
They then used a big fishing net to catch it about 4pm.
Local police were still investigating where it came from. On May 12, a crocodile was seen in a suburban creek in Pudong`s Kangqiao Area. Police said they had to kill it after failing to catch it. On January 15, a dead 2.1 meter-long crocodile was found in a creek in Pudong`s Yangyuan Area. Wild aniaml experts said it might have escaped from a restaurant (1)
1 http://www.chinacartimes.com/2012/08/07/forget-york-shanghai-crocodiles-lurking/
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2 comments:
Disgisting, 'the police had to kill it?!" The Chinese alligator is one of the rarest animals in the world. They are also harmless unless provoked.
I am in total agreement with you Richard, why didnt they get some "Experts" in to capture it - nooooo too easy lats just shoot the bloody thing and call ourselves heros. Well kiddies get used to it its all part of the global climate shift.
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