CROC WANDERING IN KK MONSOON DRAIN FINALLY CAUGHT

The crocodile when caught by WRU rangers.

3 Feb 2021

KOTA KINABALU: The Estuarine Crocodile that was reported to have inhabited the large monsoon drain running across Taman Ujana Park has finally been caught.

Director of Sabah Wildlife Department Augustine Tuuga said reports of the sightings have been received since late December on some plastic pylons just opposite Taman Ujana Tropika.

"Sabah Wildlife Department’s Wildlife Rescue Unit (WRU) was immediately directed to jump into action and capture the 2 meters' long croc.

“After more than a month, the elusive croc finally managed to be trapped by our WRU rangers. It was not at the same area, but in the same monsoon drain, this time opposite Wisma MUIS,” he said in a statement here, late Wednesday.

According to Tuuga, in the past few years, Sabah has been seeing an increasing human-crocodile conflict with quite a number of croc attacks on human causing fatalities.

"This was due to an increase in crocodile population due to an effective conservation programme for the past 30 years," he said.

Meanwhile, Manager of SWD's Wildlife Rescue Unit Dr Sen Nathan said many have requested for the crocodile to be left alone and just put up signages to warn people about it, but such approach, unfortunately, would not work in an urban area like Kota Kinabalu.

“These monsoon drains are well connected with the drainage systems along the housing areas in Luyang and Foh Sang. Pets such as dogs and cats would definitely be a fair game to this croc.

"Once this crocodile grows bigger, it would also be a serious risk to small children and adults, hence why this crocodile had to be removed from the location,” he explained.