Puerto Vallarta Fire Department Captures Crocodile on the Marina Beach Stephen Weiss - Vallarta Today
go to original January 9, 2013

On Friday January 4 in the late afternoon, a crocodile swam into the bay after swollen rivers flowed into the bay caused by the heavy rains last week.

He was found by security personnel sunning himself on the beach by the Marina Vallarta Golf Course, near the Bay View Grand Condominiums.

The croc did return to the bay once but then returned to continue his "vacation."

As he approached the beach for a second time, he was seen to open his jaws very wide as though he was going to eat some large animal. However, with no animal in sight, some of the tourists, who had gathered to watch from a distance, thought that he was just taking a very lazy yawn.

After waiting for about an hour for the crocodile to return to the sea for the second time on his own, the Puerto Vallarta Fire Department was called. Within minutes, the Fire Department arrived to first hold the crocodile enough to administer a sedative. The Fire Department personnel then tied the front and rear legs and mouth of the crocodile and wrapped his body in a blanket.

After the crocodile was calm, many tourists came to "pet" the large animal and to take photographs.

Once a larger Fire Department vehicle arrived, some local residents helped the Fire Department lift the crocodile over a sea wall behind the Marina Vallarta golf course.

The crocodile was then transported by the Fire Department to the Boca de Tomates estuary just north of Puerto Vallarta International Airport.

One resident who helped to lift the docile crocodile said it felt to be much heavier than he expected.  

Warning signs appear all around the Banderas Bay condos and resorts as well as the Marina malecon warning that crocodiles, called cocodrilos in Spanish, may come on shore to warm themselves.

Any wild animal should be avoided especially since if the animal feels threatened, it may attack. Based upon this occurrence, the warnings are justified and should be carefully observed.

Source: Photo and article courtesy of photographer and journalist Mr. Stephen Weiss(/readon1).

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