The reptile made Thane’s Upvan lake its home a few years ago, spooking locals, forcing officials to ban boat rides
Posted On Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 09:33:53 PM
|
A team of reptile experts captured an elusive female crocodile from Thane’s largest lake, Upvan, on Thursday morning. The seven-foot, 200-kg creature - which fell for a bait of chicken - had made the lake its home a few years ago, spooking locals and forcing authorities to ban boat rides.
It has now been shifted to a new habitat: Tulsi Lake in Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP). Forest officials said that the crocodile was seven years old, and it was probably “dumped” in Upvan when it was hatchling by a pet-owner.
“There have been no incidents involving the crocodile. However, we had to remove it for its safety and that of residents,” said a forest official, Thane region. The female crocodile was caught on Thursday after a three-month effort by a team headed by herpetologist Kailas Darole. (Herpetology is a branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians and reptiles.)
Darole kept a watch at the lake, recording the reptile's appearances and studying its behaviour, especially eating patterns. He also identified its hiding areas.
"As the operation involved a crocodile, we could not just jump into the water to try and capture it. We studied its behaviour and then drew up a plan to trap it," Darole said. Ten days ago, the team started luring it outside the 40-feet-deep lake with pieces of chicken every day.
"Whenever it came out to eat, we didn't try to capture it. We allowed it to return to the water," he said. This was done to make the crocodile trust its would-be captors.
Nets trapped croc
After following this routine, the team decided to change tack: they placed nets along with chicken.
"It got trapped in the nets at about 4 am on Thursday. We took all precautions to make sure the crocodile or team members didn't get hurt during the operation," he said.
Deputy Conservator of Forest (Thane region) GT Chavan told Mirror that the crocodile was released in Tulsi lake in the evening.
"We medically examined the reptile and planted a micro-chip for identification under its skin before setting it free" said Wildlife Veterinary Officer Dr Vinaya Jangale.
How the croc was caught
The female crocodile was caught on Thursday after a three-month effort by a team headed by herpetologist Kailas Darole.
First, Darole kept a watch at the lake, recording the reptile's appearances and studying its behaviour, especially eating patterns. He also identified its hiding areas.
Ten days ago, the team started luring it outside the 40-feet-deep lake with pieces of chicken every day, but still didn't try to capture it to make it trust its to-be captors.
Then the team changed its tack and placed nets along with chicken. The 200-kg crocodile took the bait and got trapped in the nets at about 4 am on Thursday.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment