An official from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) said a crocodile caught on a viral drone video swimming off the coast of Phuket is likely to have escaped from a crocodile farm.
The drone footage, which has been featured by several Thai media outlets, begins by showing a panoramic shot of the waters at Bang Tao Beach and them zooms in to show a large crocodile, estimated to be about seven feet long, swimming along the coast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOjSSfxeqNk
Director of the DMCR’s Conservation Department Suchart Rattanareangsri said yesterday, “It is highly unlikely that the crocodile was born and bred naturally in the waters of Phuket’s west coast. It most likely escaped from a nearby crocodile farm.”
“We have had cases of crocodiles being sighted around the island of Phra Thong, however, the western coastal area of Phuket is not normally an environment that crocodiles come from,” he added.
An official from the Phuket Provincial Fisheries Office, who declined to be named said, the office has not received any news recently of crocodiles going missing from farms.
However, they are going to Bang Tao Beach to investigate the crocodile that was spotted and will contact the local farms if there are any crocodile missing.
“We cannot just guess where it came from, we have to investigate the issue,” she said.
“Freshwater crocodiles can swim in saltwater,” she added.
Story: The Phuket News
