Forest Department on Escaped Crocodile

Today, News Five spoke with Shanelly Carrillo Balan from the Forest Department who confirmed that earlier this year; a sixteen-foot crocodile had escaped from the enclosure at the Caribbean Shrimp Farm in Ladyville. It is one of two that had escaped, but one was recaptured and now the department continues to monitor the situation.  Balan says that the department has been working closely with ACES, the American Crocodile Education Sanctuary which is based in San Pedro, when dealing with situations involving crocodiles.

Shanelly Carrillo Balan

Shanelly Carrillo Balan, Wildlife Program Manager, Forest Department

“Measures were taken to see if we could capture the crocodiles again to make sure that they weren’t going to be an issue for homes in that area. So yes, there was that situation and it is something that we are working on and definitely it’s not something that we have forgotten. It depends on how the crocodile behaves. For example this crocodile, we’re not sure how exactly it will behave; we are investigating right now. So we haven’t seen that becoming a reality that it is moving out and causing problems somewhere else. But we, of course, always talk to people around areas where there can possibly be conflict that you need to be careful and not just because of for example this crocodile, but all crocodiles in general, you need to take precaution just so that you are not in a dangerous situation so that we can take care of our pets, go home to our families.”