Dozens of crocodiles that escaped from a flooded Chinese farm have been recaptured, according to official media on Tuesday, a week after the reptile escapees wriggled free.
After a typhoon drenched the area earlier this month, more than 70 reptiles fled from a commercial crocodile farm in the southern Chinese city of Maoming.
Authorities in Guangdong Province began a massive hunt, with CCTV showing workers in rain boots hauling a crocodile out of the river with a rope.
“The escaped Siamese crocodiles have all been caught, with the last one being hauled to shore on the night of September 18,” the Communist Party-run Beijing News reported on Tuesday.
A dozen crocodiles wriggled in the muck, their mouths held together with cloth and rope, as employees stood among them carrying umbrellas.
According to Beijing News, the escapees included 69 fully grown crocodiles and two juveniles.
Crocodiles are grown in China for both their skin and their meat, which is occasionally utilized in traditional medicine.
According to China National Radio, the afflicted area also has a “crocodile theme park” and “the country’s largest crocodile breeding base.”
Guangdong province, including the city of Shenzhen, experienced the greatest rain since records began in 1952 earlier this month.