REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JOHANNESBURG - Afraid of crocodiles? Then you may want to stay away from the South Africa-Botswana border.
About 10,000 crocodiles escaped a crocodile farm when the gates on a dam were opened this week to alleviate pressure created by rising flood waters. About 2,000 have been recaptured, the Beeld newspaper reported Friday.
Video from the scene shows people hunting down the small-ish crocs at night, tying them up and taking them back to the Rakwena Crocodile Farm, in northern South Africa. The farm, which didn't respond to an email or calls seeking comment, used to hold 15,000 crocodiles.
South Africa has called out the police to join the hunt. Crocodile farmers, locals and police have trapped thousands of the reptiles, using plastic bands to tie their legs behind their backs and then piling them into pick-up trucks. The flood gates at the Rakwena Crocodile Farm close to the Botswana and Zimbabwe borders were opened on Sunday because it was feared that rising flood waters would crush the reptiles, releasing some 15,000 crocodiles into the Limpopo River.
"At night time we have more success. It is much easier to see them," Zane Langman, whose in-laws own the farm, told news channel ENCA.
Most of the crocodiles are less then two metres (78 inches) long. The area is home to several farms that supply crocodile skins to the fashion industry.
"We are working as a team with the stakeholders," police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said on Friday. There have been no reports of injuries caused by the escaped reptiles.
Police in Zimbabwe, on the other side of the Limpopo, also issued warnings to people to avoid going into the water because of the crocodilethreat. Heavy rains and flooding have claimed at least 20 lives in Mozambique and South Africa and led to the evacuations of thousands.
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