COSTA RICA NEWS – In the southern side of San Jose near Desamparados lies Parque de la Paz (literally, “Peace Park” which loses something of grace in translation). It has two lagoons but one thing it is NOT supposed to have is a crocdile! Global warming or not, the caiman crocodilus is supposed to reside in tropical lowlands.
Its presence in the Central Valley can only be explained one way: Some dim bulb bought the thing as an infant, then tired of it or found it to be a dangerous wild animal after it as an adult and dumped it in the lagoon. Unfortunately, a crocdile does not make a cuddly pet for children.
As captured by the members of the Volcanic Range conservation group and by reptile expert Juan Bolanos, it measured 64 centimeters long, an adolescent of about two years old. But even week old babies have a set of formidable teeth and know how to use them.
Normally a resident of the Caribbean and the south Pacific area of the country, the little beast proved relatively easy to capture — although it took five persons to subdue it –because it was caught at night where spotlights focused on the area showed up its eyes glowing red.
Despite its name, this species does not share the aggressiveness of a regular crocodile. For this reason, although residents and park visiters reported the presence of the reptile a month ago, animal experts were not in any great hurry to capture the beast.
Ronald Mora of the conservation group assured park visitors that the animal was the only example of its type there. Mora said that this was the fourth caiman that he had extracted from the park. He issued a call for more responsiblity from the public but probably it was a waste of breath–those who capture wild animals are too stupid to heed.
Article by iNews.co.cr, reposted with permission
I’m not specifically knowledgeable about caimans, but removing this animal from the lake, unless it was for its health, seems unnecessary – the article indicates that these animals are not generally aggressive. I am from Florida, where alligators exist in about any body of water and are generally tolerated. Unless you get too close to their nesting mounds, they generally keep their distance. Occasionally, gators become a little too friendly because idiots feed them, or they become nuisances by attacking pets and have to be relocated, but it is common for people to swim within sight of a gator.
I would think that a caiman in a lake in the city would have potential as an attraction.