A 12-foot crocodile was captured in Salt River, Clarendon, on Sunday morning after scaring the daylights out of people who were in the water on weekend recreation.

“We received a call that the reptile was seen and that members of the Caribbean Coastal Area Management (CCAM) team had responded. I was in the area with friends celebrating my birthday so we went to give assistance,” terrestrial biologist Damion Whyte told the Jamaica Observer.

While the CCAM team, Whyte, and his friends, who are also scientists, secured the reptile, members of Jamaica Constabulary Force managed crowd control.

“The crocodile was processed, measured; a PIT tag was placed in the animal; and it was relocated in a wetland — out the reach of humans,” Whyte explained, adding that they reiterated to people at the scene that crocodiles are protected by law and should not be harmed.

PIT (Passive Integrated Transponder) tags help scientists track individual organisms by providing a reliable lifetime ‘barcode’ for an individual animal. An important aspect of understanding animal migration is the ability to track and recognise individuals over time and space.

The tags do not require power. Instead, they have an internal microchip that is activated when it passes close to a special antenna.

Whyte, whose
Rooster’s World posts are popular on social media, noted that the capture of the crocodile has triggered a lot of activity on social media platforms.

“Some people mentioned that they are afraid to go in the water because of crocodiles, however there are few reports of crocodile incidents in Jamaica,” he said.

“We ask people to not scale fish in the water near any swimming area [so as] to avoid attracting crocodiles to those areas,” he said.