2008 Woodie Awards
Campus struggles to expel crocodile
By: MCT
Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: Campus
CORAL GABLES, Fla. - On a typical spring afternoon on the leafy campus of the University of Miami, many of the 15,000 students are in class, others are romping around the athletic field, and a few are seeing how close they can get to a 6-foot American crocodile sunbathing with its mouth open.
"They apparently don't realize how dangerous this thing is," said security guard Roberto Heredia as he warned curious collegians away from the toothy reptile. "Some people think it's fake."
School officials, including President Donna Shalala, want the crocodile expelled.
The problem: "We can't catch him," said university Police Chief David Rivero. "We're playing a cat-and-mouse game with this croc."
There may be more than one crocodile on campus. Heredia, 52, often assigned to baby-sit animals that crawl out of Lake Osceola, said there are at least three, ranging in size up to 8 feet.
Rivero said he believes all but one croc has been locked out of the lake by new fences and grates being installed at points where canals link the lake to the Gables waterways and Biscayne Bay.
What is clear is that the population of once-endangered American crocodiles is growing. Last year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service upgraded the reptiles' status from endangered to threatened, meaning a species once on the brink of extinction is now only likely to become endangered. And South Florida is the only place in the United States where these crocodiles are found.
"They apparently don't realize how dangerous this thing is," said security guard Roberto Heredia as he warned curious collegians away from the toothy reptile. "Some people think it's fake."
School officials, including President Donna Shalala, want the crocodile expelled.
The problem: "We can't catch him," said university Police Chief David Rivero. "We're playing a cat-and-mouse game with this croc."
There may be more than one crocodile on campus. Heredia, 52, often assigned to baby-sit animals that crawl out of Lake Osceola, said there are at least three, ranging in size up to 8 feet.
Rivero said he believes all but one croc has been locked out of the lake by new fences and grates being installed at points where canals link the lake to the Gables waterways and Biscayne Bay.
What is clear is that the population of once-endangered American crocodiles is growing. Last year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service upgraded the reptiles' status from endangered to threatened, meaning a species once on the brink of extinction is now only likely to become endangered. And South Florida is the only place in the United States where these crocodiles are found.
Be the first to comment on this story