No, crocodiles are not quite immortal but some of the distant dinosaur cousins have been known to have incredibly long lifespans, with a few even aging into the triple digits. One of these long-lived beasts was recently captured in Indonesia’s Aceh province by a group of villagers living near one of the region’s many palm oil plantations before eventually being relocated by government officials.
Despite pushing the century mark, the beast remains a unit, weighing in at nearly 1 tonne. As can be seen in this video, his capture proved to be quite a spectacle.
“The estuarine crocodile captured by the community has a length of about five meters, weighs an estimated 900 kg. The crocodile is male and 90 years old,” Aji Prabowo, head of Aceh’s Natural Resources Conservation Center (BKSDA) told reporters on today as quoted by Detik.
Aji said the crocodile was captured on Monday by workers at a palm oil plantation in the regency of Aceh Tamiang following reports that it had tried to attack some of the workers. One worker spotted the ancient croc while it was trying to prey on a goat owned by another local, leading to a group of crocodile hunters quickly snaring the scaly beast.
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After learning about the croc’s capture, a team from BKSDA came to secure the animal and ended up relocating it to an uninhabited section of forest around Kota Langsa as they said there was no other safe place for it in the area.
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Aji noted that there has been a large increase in reports about crocodiles attacking humans in Aceh, which he said was due to humans increasingly entering into the reptiles’ territory. Conservationists have also noted a spike in attacks on humans by snakes in certain parts Indonesia, many of which have taken place near new palm oil plantations (such as the man who was swallowed whole by a giant python in West Sulawesi last year).
The massive and rapid expansion of palm oil plantations in Indonesia is not only blamed for encroaching on the natural habitats of numerous endangered and protected species, it has also been the cause of an enormous and almost annual transcontinental “haze” pollution crisis.
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