By Snehal BhavsarOn September 29th, the keeper of ‘Ajay Farm’ located on the Kalali-talsat Rd. in Vadodara city, went out to put his labrador in a dog kennel. However, when he arrived at the kennel he was both shocked and surprised to find a huge 9.5 ft crocodile sitting in the kennel. Luckily, the keeper was able to think quickly on his feet. He proceeded to shut the kennel from outside and rushed to call the property owner, Mr. Raju Shah. Mr. Shah who was not home at the time then frantically called the WSOS / GSPCA Wildlife Helpline Unit
The rescue team rushed to the farm and arrived by 12:30 in the afternoon. The team secured the crocodile. Although the team is highly experienced in safely handling crocodiles, loading this large and strong animal into the ambulance proved to be a challenge. Eventually, the crocodile was safe and secured in the ambulance.
The crocodile had a tag with the number 90 on it. Looking at the records he was identified as a crocodile that was originally tagged on January 31, 2003 when he was only 2 ft long. It was interesting to see that he had originally been caught at the other end of Vadodara in 2003. Tagging the crocodiles and maintaining records gives invaluable physiological and behavioral information on the crocodiles in this area.
The crocodile was released back in its habitat.
Wildlife SOS provides financial support to the GSPCA to provide these rescources to the community. To support this program please consider a donation to www.wildlifesos.org/donate
