Hong Kong's celebrity crocodile -- snared this week after seven months on the run -- is apparently stunned by its captivity and has refused to eat since it was caught, a wildlife official said yesterday.
The croc, who was first spotted in a muddy creek last November, gained celebrity status here by avoiding persistent attempts at capture with dart guns, harpoons and traps set by expert crocodile hunters from across the region.
The reptile finally walked into a snare in the creek on Thursday morning. It was later transferred to an animal center where it has seemed frightened and has refused to eat, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Director Thomas Chan (
Veterinarians plan to feed the croc, which they estimate is four years old, with medicine instead, he said, without naming the treatment.
On Thursday, government vet Eric Tai (
Experts have yet to determine the reptile's gender, Tai said, but added that they suspected it was a "baby girl."
Idy Wong (
Authorities spent around HK$300,000 (US$38,000) in their efforts to catch the croc, government spokesman Donald Lam said.
Though the croc was small -- just 1.5m long and weighing 14kg -- officials had been concerned that it would grow and become a public danger. Even so, this rare visitor won the hearts of Hong Kong's urbanites who are more likely to spot crocs on nature TV shows or as material for designer handbags and shoes. Some locals called it "Gucci" after the Italian designer brand, and one radio station named it "personality of the year."
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
INFLUTENTIAL THEORIST: Habermas was particularly critical of the ‘limited interest’ shown by German politicians in ‘shaping a politically effective Europe Jurgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96. Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich. Habermas frequently weighed in on political matters over several decades. His extensive writing crossed the boundaries of academic and philosophical disciplines, providing a vision of modern society and social interaction. His best-known works included the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas, who was 15 at the time of Nazi Germany’s defeat, later recalled the dawn of
RSS