VIDEO: Killer croc captured and released

The male Nile crocodile, measuring 3.25 metres, is said to have killed a 10-year-old boy earlier this month.

Screen grab for the captured crocodile.

The crocodile that is believed to have been responsible for the recent killing of a 10-year-old boy has been captured, Lowvelder reports.

Croc captured.

The boy’s body was recovered four days after he was allegedly attacked in the Ngwaritsi River in Jim Brown Village on February 4.

Senior conservationist of game management at the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency Chris Hobkirk said: “He set a cage nearby on the day the body was found. We put the cage down and some meat there, as crocodiles are territorial in an area of about four kilometres.”

“A lot of people wanted to kill the crocodile because he had killed the child despite that the crocodile did what crocodiles do, and was unaware that it was doing something wrong.”

“About 80 percent of the population there wanted it killed and kept watching the cage and the river.”

Hobkirk said this must have made the reptile wary, so it laid low until people started losing interest.

On Wednesday, he got a call to say the animal had been caught. The male Nile crocodile measured 3.25 metres. Hobkirk fetched and transported it to a crocodile dam outside Mbombela.

“We have specific dams for problem crocodiles. Here he will hopefully reside peacefully.”

Hobkirk thanked the residents in the area who assisted in the capture and relocation.