15,000 crocodiles escape: Locals warned to stay indoors

After 15,000 fearsome crocodiles escaped from a farm in South Africa and one wandered into a school, locals have been warned to stay indoors. The 15,000 crocodiles escaped from the Rakwena Crocodile Farm in north east South Africa, reported the Daily Mail on Jan. 24, 2013.

The 15,000 Nile crocodiles escaped from the crocodile farm on Sunday after unusually heavy rains caused the nearby Limpopo River to rise.

Because of the rising river water, the owners of the 15,000 crocodile farm had to open the crocodiles’ pens in order to allow the water to drain.Once the gates of the crocodile farm were opened, the 15,000 crocodiles took a run for it.

Nile crocodiles, including the 15,000 crocodiles that escaped, are known to be the largest crocodile in Africa and the second-largest in the world after the saltwater crocodile. Male crocodiles generally measure between 3.5 and 5 meters but can also grow up to 5.5 meter which is about one to two yards.

“Nile Crocodiles are meat eating and can grow to up to five metres long. They can run at up to eight miles an hour and swim at up to 22 mph. … They are extremely dangerous to humans. Their preferred method of killing is to grab an animal in their enormous jaws then drag it, alive, underwater to drown it.”

Besides humans, Nile crocodiles also attack or eat other domestic animals like chickens, goats, sheep and cattle or wild animals like gazelles, antelope, waterbuck, sitatunga, lechwe, wildebeest, zebras, warthogs, giraffes and Cape buffalos.

According to the Daily Mail report, the 15,000 Nile crocodiles have been seen by now “over the local area - including in a school.”

Local residents have been warned to stay indoors and not to get close to any of the 15,000 crocodiles.

Rakwena's Zane Langman, who is involved in recapturing the 15,000 crocodiles, told South Africa's Afrikaans language Beeld newspaper that “he had already caught 'a few thousand' in the dense bush and orange groves next to his farm, but he told the newspaper that 'more than half' of his reptiles are still missing.”

Langman also said that catching the crocodiles at night is easier since the crocodiles’ eyes “reflect red in torchlight.”

Crocodile farms breed and raise crocodiles commercially for their skin which is used to make crocodile leather for belts, shoes, and handbags and to sell crocodile meat to some smaller markets.

The Daily Mail reports that the commercial crocodile farming industry is still small in South Africa but that the industry is growing and has now “around 60 farms containing a total of around 500,000 animals.” Of course, minus the 15,000 crocodiles that escaped.

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