Killer crocodile shot dead

2006-07-28 15:12

Kampala - Angry Ugandan conservation officials have hit out at the shooting of a crocodile which, although it had killed nine people, has been shot "in a killing spree".

Uganda Wildlife Authority spokesperson Lillian Nsubuga said: "It is true the crocodile killed and ate nine people since January and this included one victim last week - but it is illegal to kill wildlife.

"Even if it was killing people, they should have informed us and we would have taken it away, because it has a right to life." The animal, shot on Wednesday, had killed nine people since January.

The crocodile, weighing between 800 and 900kg, reckoned to be 35 years old and whose gender had yet to be established, was shot by a district vermin control guard, near Lake Victoria's Kiyaga landing site, south-east of Kampala, after residents sent an urgent message that it was killing people.

People 'ignorant of conservation'

But, wildlife officials were saying that the action was a result of the ignorance of the need for conservation on the part of the communities and district officials.

Nsubuga said: "We need to step up sensitisation programmes because district authorities and people are ignorant of conservation. People called the vermin guard instead of calling us. He just got a gun and killed the crocodile."

The reptile was reported to be an endangered giant Nile crocodile, which had an average life span of 45 years although many lived up to 60 years. Conservationists believed that some of these reptiles might clock 100 years.

Uganda had a well-organised donor- and state-funded conservation programme, under which animals trapped in the wild, in communities, wounded or rescued from poachers and smugglers were taken to a protected forested sanctuary on the edge of Lake Victoria.

The Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC) facility was looking after two rescued crocodiles, one aged 11 and the other 15.

UWEC executive director Andrew Seguya said: "Those who shot the animal were unaware that it was stuck in the community.

"We could have taken it if it was not killed. Nile crocodiles are classified as endangered and it is possible that legal proceedings can be taken against whoever killed that crocodile."

Sapa-dpa

- SAPA