A week after a crocodile was removed from a residential community in Clarendon by individuals suspected to be driven by ulterior motives, its whereabouts are still shrouded in mystery.

On Sunday the Hayes police confirmed that they had received a report of the matter and are investigating, but said they could not divulge any details.

Word of the animal’s removal was passed to the Jamaica Observer on Saturday by a woman living in Hayes Phase 2, where the incident with the crocodile unfolded on Sunday, November 1, 2026.

The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she became aware of the matter when a resident of the community started a TikTok LIVE stream about 5:00 am.

“I wasn’t really in the community at the time but I joined the live when I heard there was a croc there,” she said.

“The people there were trying to ensure that the crocodile did not go into anybody’s house and to keep it away from animals,” she said. “I called RoosterJA and reported it.”

Her reference was to Rooster’s World JA, the environmental consultancy and eco-tourism enterprise founded by well-known conservation biologist Damion Whyte.

He told the Observer that he received the call about 7:00 am and immediately contacted other conservation experts, some of whom work with the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) and Caribbean Coastal Area Management.

“What they normally do when they get the call is they make arrangements for a team to make it down there. But in this case, the NEPA people couldn’t make it, so they would call other partners,” he said.

Whyte said he joined the live and started talking to the people in the community who, he found, were growing anxious. They told him that they, too, had called NEPA.

“I don’t know who they got, but I reached out to people and they said that they were getting people to go there to move the animal because they were unable to get there at the time,” he said.

Whyte said he continued talking with the residents on the TikTok LIVE stream, reminding them that crocodiles are protected by law and encouraging them not to harm the animal. However, he said that on more than one occasion other people joined the live “talking crazy stuff” like getting the crocodile’s tail.

“I heard people saying is $70,000 for the tail and things like that,” Whyte told the Observer, adding that he kept getting messages from other people about the crocodile.

“So during the live [stream] the people in the community said the people who they called for help came,” Whyte said. That was 8:30 am.

However, the individuals who arrived in the community instructed the residents to stop videoing.

Whyte said he found that strange because when he and other conservationists go into communities to remove crocodiles they don’t prevent residents from recording their actions.

He said at exactly 8:45 am he left the livestream to take a message. The word was that the team from Caribbean Coastal Area Management did not make it to the community. On hearing that, he rejoined the livestream and asked the residents who actually were the individuals who came to help. At that point, the residents started expressing doubt about the legitimacy of the men who turned up to move the crocodile.

“And from deh so, mi nuh know what happen to the crocodile,” Whyte said, expressing regret that he was unable to get to the community to rescue the animal.

“It’s gone. It’s not the people who are supposed to move it, move it. Nobody showed identification,” he said, adding that he has since received reports that the individuals who took the crocodile have chopped its tail off.

The Hayes police said they, too, have received that information, but are unable to confirm it.

“I feel bad about it, because I was advising people not knowing that it was not legitimate people who moved it, so I feel bad as a conservationist,” he said.

When the Observer contacted NEPA on Friday the agency said it has not received a report about the removal of the animal.

In the meantime, Whyte said he was proud of the residents as they tried to protect the crocodile.

“But one of the lessons learned from this is that when we get reports like this we have to react quickly, because I feel that if I could have left Kingston I could have moved the animal. And the second point is, I had told the people that whoever come there they should ask for identification, because it was strange that the men who came told the people don’t video,” Whyte said.