A wild swamp crocodile, an extinct species in Bangladesh, has been captured on a bank of the Ganges in a village in Faridpur district, in the center of the country.

The animal is a male 2.3 meters long and aged 10 to 12 years.

Authorities tried to get him out of the water to no avail, until he was captured by villagers, regional forestry manager Nirmal Kumar Paul said on Tuesday.

"We found out that he had actually entered the Padma River [tributary of the Ganges] channel in search of fish which seem to be in abundance there," said the official.

“We tried to capture him with nets but he escaped.

Then, on Monday, the villagers caught him while he was moving on the shore ”.

The crocodile draws the crowd

The presence of the crocodile in the canal, where it could easily be seen since the end of July, has attracted some 15,000 people to the village, despite warnings from the authorities reminding us by loudspeaker of the containment in force against the coronavirus.

The crocodile has since been transferred to a wildlife rescue center near the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest (140,000 hectares).

It will then be transferred to a zoological park, officials said.

On the list of "regional extinct" species

The animal could have reached Bangladesh from India by the Ganges, a river 2,500 kilometers long.

The

crocodylus palustris

, listed as "regional extinct" in Bangladesh by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), was last recorded in the wild in the country a long time ago. half a century.

Several have, however, been observed since.

Bangladesh keeps a few specimens in captivity whose origin is unknown, according to the IUCN.

The species is found in India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Its world population is estimated at between 5,400 and 7,100 individuals, according to the researchers.

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