Nearly 15,000 crocodiles escaped a farm in South Africa this week.
According to the Scotsman , heavy rains forced the owners of the Rakwena Crocodile Farm to open the floodgates. When the gates opened, more than 15,000 escaped into the Limpopo river.
The owners have been rounding up the animals since the great Crocodile escape and they’ve done an OK job so far. They’ve recaptured more than half of the crocodiles but the farm is still searching for about 7,000.
Zane Langman, son-in-law of the farm’s owner Johan Boshoff, said:
“There used to be only a few crocodiles in the Limpopo river. Now there are a lot. We’ve been recapturing them as and when the local farmers phone us to tell us that there are crocodiles on their property.”
The Telegraph reports that the Limpopo Province has been hit by several floods this year. At least 10 people have been killed by the rising waters and several more have been made homeless. In Mozambique, the floods have caused tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
The owners of the Rakwena Crocodile Farm said that they are having better luck at capturing the animals at night since their eyes glow red in the dark. Animal safety experts are telling people in the area to stay away from animals and to alert authorities if they spot a crocodile.