Authorities want to catch killer crocodile alive

BUNAWAN, Agusan del Sur, Philippines – The Agusan del Sur Provincial Protected Area Office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, NGO Save Mindanao Volunteers and the local government unit of Bunawan wanted the capture of the monster crocodile safe and alive.

But the hunt for the elusive giant reptile has never started yet, says Assistant Provincial Protected Area Superintendent Rufino Moreno Miranda who is in charge of wildlife sanctuaries at the Agusan Marsh.

“The Crocodile Farm Institute in Palawan has already signified their interest to help us for the capture of the giant crocodile, definitely we will not hurt the reptile as it is one of the endangered species,” Miranda said.

Bunawan Mayor Gilbert Elorde Jr. told The STAR yesterday in an interview that he too, has already received offers from different private crocodile farms in the country for the capture of the croc.

Authorities have appealed to residents not to shoot neither harm or attempt to kill the giant crocodile following unconfirmed reports yesterday that some armed Barangay tanods shot it using a shotgun. But the bullets allegedly failed to penetrate the already thick scales of the reptile.

Eyewitnesses mostly residents of the floating communities in Agusan Marsh who have personally seen the monster crocodile estimated it to be 40 feet long and one and a half meters in body width.

Some residents here were former lumber cutters or lumberjacks who are familiar with measurements of the wooden trees they cut but as huge wooden trees used for timber needs dwindled, they shifted into fishing and retrieving of abandoned bamboo poles in the Agusan marsh.

Manobo tribal leader Bae Ligaya Daga-as, 57, told newsmen who visited the marsh yesterday, she and her parents who have traveled by banca a lot by criss-crossing the 113,000 hectares Agusan marsh for many years said she has not seen cro­codiles that big.

Daga-as was with the Romano couple yesterday morning on board a motorized boat when a giant crocodile some 26 to 28 feet long appeared before them while cruising Lake Mihaba on the way to evacuation venue in Barangay San Marcos.

“When I was a kid accompanying my parents, the crocodiles then were even afraid by the mere sound of human voice and engines of motorboats, now they are not afraid anymore,” said the 57-year-old Manobo tribal leader.

The monster crocodile attacked and decapitated a 12-year-old Manobo girl on March 7 while the victim was with a female classmate rowing their wooden banca home in Lake Mihaba, Barangay San Marcos, Bunawan, Agusan del Sur at around 6 p.m.