SONGKHLA: A hunt team looking for a male crocodile spotted on Thursday in a Hat Yai canal managed to capture it and another female reptile.
The 10-member Kraithong crocodile hunting team from the Songkhla Marine Fisheries Suppression and Prevention Centre resumed the search for the crocodile in Khlong Wa in Noppakao community, Kho Hong area of Hat Yai late Friday evening after laying nets to narrow the area where the creature was spotted sunbathing on an islet near the canal on Thursday morning.
To relocate the animal, some members of the hunt team boarded a flat-bottomed boat along the canal and used flashlights to look for its eyes which glowed in the dark.
After the location was known, Nikom Suksawat, leader of the hunt team, made a lasso which was successfully put around the crocodile’s neck at around 7.30pm. Other members of the team stood by in the area.
The male crocodile, measuring 1.5 metres long and 55cm wide, was later pulled ashore.
A canal where two crocodiles are found. (Photo by Assawin Pakkawan)
While the hunters were clearing the area, they were stunned to see another crocodile of almost the same size in the same spot. They used the same method and put a lasso around its neck.
The second reptile was female, about 1.55 metres long and 60cm wide. The two animals were around 2-3 years old.
Yukhol Hempundit, Hat Yai fisheries district office official, said the two reptiles might be offspring of some of the crocodile on the loose from a farm in Khlong Hoi Khong district during the 2011 major flooding.
It was pure luck that the pair had not reached the reproductive age.
Earlier on Thursday, a crocodile was spotted sunbathing on an islet near Khlong Wa. Rescuers were called in to capture it, initially reported to be about 3m long.
However, the reptile dived into the canal and swam off as the rescuers approached it. Efforts failed to capture it.
The Kraithong hunt team was later deployed to capture the animal before it escapes into U-Tapao canal, a major waterway in Songkhla.
Members of the Kraithong hunt team show two crocodiles captured from a canal in Hat Yai district, Songkhla. (Photo by Assawin Pakkawan)
Video by Assawin Pakkawan.