KANCHANABURI: A crocodile about two metres long that was spotted near a canal in Tha Maka district last Sunday has been captured, while another larger one remains at large.
Kanchanaburi governor Jirakiat Bhumisawasdi posted a message with pictures of the captured croc on Saturday: “Good news. One crocodile has already been captured. There is still another one.”
Officers from the Kanchanaburi provincial and Tha Maka district fisheries offices and crocodile hunters from Surat Thani found the crocodile while searching along the Thasarn-Bang Phla canal in Tha Maka district around midnight on Friday, said Chalermphan Hongyon, chairman of the Region 7 water rescue team.
The reptile was seen about 100 metres away from where it was first spotted by a local resident on Jan 17.
The hunting team used an electronic device to subdue the crocodile before using a rope to bind its jaws and feet, said Mr Chalermphan, who was also involved in the hunt.
The reptile was about 2.3 metres long, he said. The team is still searching for a 3-metre crocodile that they spotted earlier in the course of their hunt for the first one, he added.
Local resident Khiri Yaemsiree, 40, first alerted officials that he spotted a crocodile about two metres long floating in the Thasarn-Bang Phla canal while he was fishing on the morning of Jan 17. The croc swam past him before it went ashore to sunbathe on the opposite bank around 11am on that day, he said.