American Tourist Attacked by Croc

Chris Summers

An American woman in her late thirties was attacked by a twelve-foot crocodile on Monday night. It happened at sea, south of Ambergris Caye. Fortunately, the croc attack was not fatal, but the woman escaped with not only a traumatic experience but also with croc bites on her left arm after which she needed almost one hundred stitches. Those who witnessed the attacked jumped to her rescue, chasing off the massive male reptile. The tourist was reportedly in the water, finding a lost diamond earring when the crocodile struck. This latest attack has San Pedro based, American Crocodile Education Sanctuary, ACES, on the hunt for the crocodile to prevent a reoccurrence. Chris Summers says that several traps will be set to capture and relocate the croc to an organization in southern Belize.

Chris Summers, ACES

“There are crocodile out in the ocean. These are salt water animals. Pretty much anywhere you go in the country where you find mangroves you have the potential to find crocodiles. Luckily for us they are usually quiet shy and timid and incidents like this are very few and far in between. This is a very unusual incident for one to display that kind of aggression. We don’t like to remove animals from the wild unless we absolutely have to and an incident like this , one which was posing or showing that much aggression towards people we can’t take chances in leaving that in the wild. We have to go out and set traps and try and trap the animal. Catches like these are difficult when they are in open ocean because he has a lot of coast he can patrol. I imagine that it will take us a couple of nights for us to get him.”

Hipolito Novelo

“Is it a big croc?”

Chris Summers

“It is a big croc. Well it depends on your definition of nig but I am estimating over ten feet.”