Croc refused to let woman go
2007-01-16 09:32
Nelspruit - A crocodile that caught a woman protected its prey all night
long before it was possible to scare it away in order to recover the body.
The woman was caught and dragged into the water by a crocodile at a dam in the
Blinkwater Spruit about 18:00 on Saturday while she and two other women were
fishing illegally.
The dam is situated on Jan van Staden's farm De Hoop in the Croc River
Mountain conservation area about 30km outside Nelspruit.
According to Van Staden the crocodile was about 4m in length.
Inspector Dawie Pretorius from the Nelspruit police said the women
apparently saw something moving in the water at one stage.
"One of them threw her hook in the direction of the movement."
The next moment the crocodile jumped from the water and got hold of her
dress, pulling her under the water.
Her two friends saw a lot of blood in the water and went looking for help.
When the police arrived it was already too dark to start searching for the
woman.
At daybreak they saw the body floating about 3m from the side. When police
divers wanted to enter the water, the crocodile came closer and lay down on top of the body, said Pretorius.
The reptile was apparently very aggressive and could only be driven away
after several attempts.
The body was recovered from the water by means of hooks attached to ropes.
Jimmy Masobuko, spokesperson for the Mpumalanga Parks Board, said the
crocodile would not be destroyed, but captured and relocated to one of the
board's reserves.
Johan Rademan, chairperson of the conservation area, said numerous signs
warned people not fish illegally.
"At the end of each month in particular we have a problem with people
poaching fish from the dams."
He said fish and game were poached at this time of the month because people
had money then, providing the poachers with a ready market for stolen fish
or game.