Green Options

A 28-year-old man was arrested for allegedly smuggling 70 live animals in his luggage.   Custom officials at the O.R. Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) near Johannesburg, discovered the animals hidden inside plastic tubs and bags. 

Recent reports that the international demand for crocodile skin is leading to the Nile crocodile being in danger of extinction in Nigeria need some evaluation and would in any case be easily solved through the farming of crocodiles.

There have been a number of news stories (Agence France Presse, Red Orbit) about Ismail Dauda, the crocodile and python skin tanner of Kano in northern Nigeria. He is reportedly processing up to 20,000 skins (crocodile & python) a month. His comment that crocodiles are now harder to source than ten years ago and discussions with conservationists lead to the conclusion that crocodiles “might soon face extinction in Nigeria” if the authorities do start to control this mainly illegal trade.

Recently, we published famed conservationist Dr. Ian Player’s story of his 60 year long struggle to save St. Lucia Lake in South Africa. In 1970, the lake had become so salty it was killing the crocodiles. Dr. Player and his colleagues found themselves wrestling 1,000 Lb crocodiles and airlifting the animals by helicopter to a safer home. Here, with excerpts from Dr. Player’s story, are the photos of that rescue. Read Dr. Player’s full story at WILD.

“In April 1970 there was a headline that St Lucia would be dead in a few months. This led to a furious Chairman of the Parks Board, Mr. Wood, making a statement in which, inter-alia, he said that he, ‘did not accept the Lake would soon be dead.’ But the Northern section was already dead, with more crocodiles dying daily, and the stench of death was overpowering. Newspaper articles appeared almost daily about the lake and the salinity, and letters were written to the press urging more practical solutions.”

Dr. Ian Player knows Lake St. Lucia, located in South Africa’s Wetlands Park, intimately. He’s dedicated 60 years of his life to saving it. In his youth, Dr. Player fished the lake. By 1970, he would be wrestling and airlifting 50 large crocodiles to save them from salinity of the lake’s waters. Here is Dr. Player’s story, published with permission from WILD.

Scientists in Florida have come up with a strange way to stop crocodiles from crawling into cities and towns.

Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is testing a program to strap magnets onto the heads of crocodiles that wander into developed areas, saying the magnet could “break the homing cycle” and prevent them from returning.

The National Wildlife Federation has credited the Turkey Point nuclear power plant in Florida for helping save endangered crocodiles by creating a makeshift sanctuary for the reptiles within their 6,800-acre network of canals for the past 30 years.

In 1985, only 19 crocodiles lived around Turkey Point, but now around 400 live among the canals, which are used to cool to nearby nuclear power plant. The species was changed from endangered to threatened in 2007 by the US Fish & Wildlife Service.