Article: Farmer stopped from recapturing crocodiles

A Limpopo farmer from whose farm thousands of crocodiles escaped during recent flooding has been banned from recapturing them, Beeld reported on Friday.

Zane Langman, owner of the Rakwena crocodile farm in the Pontdrif area, told the paper on Thursday he was negotiating with the environmental affairs department about its decision.
 
Yeah, he can't prove ownership so I don't think he has a leg to stand on.
 
Yeah he can't prove ownership, but surely it would be better to get a few thousand out of the damn river... and he can hold them until ownership is proven.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Yeah he can't prove ownership, but surely it would be better to get a few thousand out of the damn river... and he can hold them until ownership is proven.
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But the river naturally has crocodiles in it?
 
ToxicBunny said:
Yeah he can't prove ownership, but surely it would be better to get a few thousand out of the damn river... and he can hold them until ownership is proven.
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Huh? So if you have a game-farm with 1000 springbok and half escape because of a freak natural event, you can simply grab a coupla hundred from an open space and claim they're yours?
 
Aren't these crocs tagged? I've seen where they have these bright colour plastic id tags on their tails somewhere.
 
flarkit said:
Huh? So if you have a game-farm with 1000 springbok and half escape because of a freak natural event, you can simply grab a coupla hundred from an open space and claim they're yours?
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No, thats not what I'm getting at at all..

The onus of ownership is still on him, but he can help get the numbers in the river back down to their normal numbers... have a holding pen for the recaptured crocks or something of that nature.
 
Yeah it could have disasterous effects on the ecology of the area. He should have had them tagged.
 
Fudzy said:
Yeah it could have disasterous effects on the ecology of the area. He should have had them tagged.
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Exactly. Seems like a bit of negligence on the farmer's part IMO. Unfortunate situation for the farmer and possibly for the local environment
 
So he cant be held responsible if someone is injured or killed by a crocodile in that area
 
R/SGT said:
So he cant be held responsible if someone is injured or killed by a crocodile in that area
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Sounds dodgy and IMO also means he has no leg to stand on for the missing ones
 
I posted the above since I think that there will more than likely be an attack, since these crocs associate people with food and when that happens everyone will try to sue the farmer.

However based on this
"They told us we weren't allowed to capture crocodiles from the Limpopo River before we're given permission, because we can't prove ownership of the animals."
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The victim would also have to prove that it was one of the farmers crocs
 
Is it not standard for croc farmers to tag their animals though? Even if the prospect of them escaping is remote?
 
ToxicBunny said:
Yes, but a certain number, not a certain number + a few thousand extra.
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Yeah, but the point is that if he can't prove ownership he can't just bag the ones he captures - because they naturally occur there.
 
I wonder how adaptable the crocidiles that have escaped are to living in the wild? Surely they would have become used to a feeding regiment.
 
Garson007 said:
Yeah, but the point is that if he can't prove ownership he can't just bag the ones he captures - because they naturally occur there.
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And you're missing my point.
I'm not saying he gets to take them back to his farm and treat them as his own. He should be asked to help get the numbers back to normal, and all the crocks he captures should be in a separate holding area that he is not allowed to "farm"
 
Garson007 said:
Yeah, but the point is that if he can't prove ownership he can't just bag the ones he captures - because they naturally occur there.
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Who really gives a fsck, if he had 1000 crocs on his farm and recovered 1000 from the river does it really matter? At the end of the day there is 1000 less crocs in the river. Is it really such an issue that he might recover a croc that's not from his farm?
 
ponder said:
Who really gives a fsck, if he had 1000 crocs on his farm and recovered 1000 from the river does it really matter? At the end of the day there is 1000 less crocs in the river. Is it really such an issue that he might recover a croc that's not from his farm?
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How do we know he had 1000 crocs?
 
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