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For Theolin Tembo 
2h ago
Cape Town – Approximately 27 young Nile crocodiles that escaped from a commercial breeding farm at Bonnievale in the Western Cape were recaptured.
This is according to CapeNature spokesperson Petro van Rhyn, who provided an update Thursday morning.
“Twenty-seven crocodiles have been caught since escaping from a breeding farm outside Bonnievale on Wednesday morning.
“It is not known how many escaped in total. The juvenile crocodiles escaped through a chain-link fence that they managed to get through, ”said Van Rhyn.
SAPS spokesman FC van Wyk said that the farm owner realized that some crocodiles escaped from one of the detention camps on the premises around 7 a.m. Wednesday, which coincidentally turned out to be World Day of wild life.
“The containment field houses specimens, all 1.2 m to 1.5 m in length. It has been determined that some crocodiles managed to enter the Breede River, approximately 300 meters from the facility, ”said Van Wyk.
The MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Anton Bredell, said: “An unknown number remain at large and it is very likely that they have found their way to the Breede River, which runs nearby.
“Crocodiles present a medium danger to people because they are farm animals, used to a regular diet and therefore do not hunt for food. But they are still wild and instinctive animals and pose a danger to the public. “
Bredell explained that they were focusing their attention on an area about 5 km upstream towards Robertson and 5 km downstream towards Swellendam.
CapeNature and its partners will also continue to search for the animals and have placed a series of humane baited traps to try and recapture the animals that remain at large.
Van Wyk said: “CapeNature provided trap cages to the owner, which were placed on the river bank with bait, in an attempt to retrieve the escaped individuals. This will be increased with night patrols in the river with floodlights, in order to locate any other individual crocodile ”.
Bredell and Van Wyk urged people who saw a crocodile not to approach it, but to alert Bonnievale SAPS immediately on 023 616 8060.
Cape Argus
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