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Hong Kong's elusive reptile finally caught by government's net

Hong Kong's celebrated runaway crocodile has been captured alive, the government said yesterday, ending an eight-month saga that saw it elude even the world's most respected croc hunter.

The 1.5m reptile, which mysteriously appeared last November, is believed to have wandered into a net laid to catch the beast.

"The crocodile has been caught," a spokesman for the government's agriculture, fisheries and conservation department said.

The spokesman could not confirm how the animal had been caught, but reports on cable TV and radio said it had wandered into a trap.

RTHK public radio said it had been caught in a baited net.

"It had walked up onto the bank ... it was going back into the water and then it was trapped in one of our nets," an employee of the agriculture, fisheries and conservation department told the radio station.

TV images showed the writhing reptile being carried away from its watery home in a large net by two men before being thrown into the back of a waiting truck.

RTHK said the animal had been taken to a quarantine center. It is believed it will then be transferred to the nearby Kadoorie Farm nature reserve until a permanent home is found for it in a wetland nature park.

There was no indication of the condition of the crocodile, but Kadoorie Farm's Idy Wong (王麗賢) said she had been told it had struggled to free itself from the trap.

The crocodile hit the headlines when it was first sighted in a muddy, polluted ditch near the suburban town of Yuen Long in Hong Kong's northern New Territories.

It became a media celebrity almost overnight and attracted a daily phalanx of photographers awaiting its every move.

International fame was assured when it evaded the efforts of celebrated Australian crocodile hunter John Lever who had been brought in to catch the reptile last November.

Since then crocodile hunters from China have also come to capture it only to leave red-faced and empty handed.

Surviving on a diet of dead fish that fill the putrid waters, the beast has been frequently spotted on the banks of the filthy waterway.

Crocodiles are not native to Hong Kong and it is believed the Yuen Long creature either escaped from a farm in nearby China or was a pet that was discarded when it grew too large.
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