Environment

Baby crocs caught at Egyptian border

by ryan | August 14, 2007 at 08:53 am

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Ever wonder what the crabby customs agent does with those confiscated animals? Well maybe not, but this is an interesting story coming out o Egypt. A man was caught smuggling hundreds of baby crocodiles out of the country - and now they have to put them up in the local zoo.

A sudden influx of hundreds of baby crocodiles seized while being smuggled out of Cairo airport has left a zoo in the Egyptian capital struggling to deal with the tiny but rapidly growing reptiles. They were brought here after customs officials Sunday found them, along with snakes and chameleons, in the luggage of a young Saudi man who said that they were destined for a Saudi "scientific institute."

The man was released, and the results of what the airport vet called "the largest smuggling attempt of Nile crocodiles in the whole of aviation history" were brought to stay in this large basin in a glass-fronted cage.

And you dare ask, why this fellow was smuggling out hundreds of crocodiles...to sell them to princes no less so they can live out the rest of their days wallowing in luxury.

"I'd say these crocodiles were going to be sold to [Gulf] princes so they could wallow in pools at luxury villas," said Toma, who believes that they were either caught by fishermen in southern Egypt or born on a secret farm.

The lucrative trade in Nile crocodiles has grown rapidly in recent years. In 2001, a Jordanian man was arrested at Cairo airport with 60 baby crocodiles in a suitcase.

In March of this year, a veiled woman was detained at the Rafah crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip with two crocodiles firmly strapped to her body. She confessed to working "to order."