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.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
RSS