Crocodile Escapes in Emirates

The crocodile, which was just a baby and thought to be of African origin was first spotted doing a spot of beachcombing by the seaside in Al Rams about 20km north of Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE.

People started relying the report via SMS messages but in a classic electronic version of Chinese Whispers it soon changed to a number of fully grown crocodiles prowling Al rams beaches. Panic set in and for several days the normally busy beaches were deserted. Then a small boy spotted the baby crock, told his family and they went and captured it.

The crocodile’s owner Fahd Abdullah Juma'a later reclaimed his pet. He had purchased it from a shop in Ras Al Khaimah then built a pool for it at his seaside home.

According to Gulf News Juma'a learned of his pet’s escape when a friend showed him photographs of it on his mobile phone. He was able to trace the family that had captured it and they were only too happy to return it too him. He said that although his crocodile is very small the mobile phone images made it look big and that may be what made people so scared. He claimed that many local people had crocodiles some of them up to five metres in length.

Apparently it is regarded as perfectly normal to keep such creatures as pets in The UAE but according to Gulf News a marine biology professor at UAE University says that the crocodile is protected under the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species which the UAE is a member of.

Despite the Convention animals that are listed as protected are still being smuggled into the country and sold by a number of shops in the Emirates.

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