5-metre long crocodile found dead in Setiu

27 January 2014

5-metre long crocodile found dead in Setiu

SETIU: A five-metre long crocodile was found dead after it was trapped in a fishing net in Sungai Bari near Kampung Che Selamah here this afternoon.

The crocodile, weighing around 500kg is the biggest to be found in Setiu so far.

State Department of Wildlife and National Parks director Yusoff Shariff said the crocodile was found by a fisherman at 4pm today.

He said the discovery of the crocodile, estimated to be about 30-years-old, shocked the villagers in Kampung Che Selamah as they had never seen the creature in the river before.

Yusoff said the last time the same species of crocodile was found in Setiu was in 1982.

"The crocodile was already decomposing badly as it was estimated to have died two or three days ago," he said.

"We conducted a post mortem and found a wild boar in the crocodile's stomach. We believe that the crocodile gorged to death on the wild boar before it got stuck in the fishing net," he said.

He said the species is commonly found in rivers around Setiu and the dead crocodile could have been living in Sungai Bari all this while.