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'Sifis' the Cretan Crocodile is a Facebook Hit

Cretan CrocodileEvery effort is being made to recapture alive and not kill the crocodile that has taken up residence in an artificial wetland in Rethymno on the island of CreteRethymno Mayor Giorgis Marinakis said in an audio interview with ANA-MPA on Monday.
The crocodile has become a local sensation, with media naming him “Sifis” and fans creating facebook pages where they express their sympathy for the misplaced reptile and wish for his return to its natural environment.
Mayor marinakis said that a reptile specialist was due to arrive on the island on Thursday, when a major operation will take place to capture “Sifis” and return him to his natural habitat.
“Crocodiles cannot survive and reproduce on Crete. A tropical-looking place is one thing and tropical conditions are quite another,” he said in regards to the reptile, which has been sighted in a body of water created by the building of a hydroelectric dam that will supply the entire area with electricity. The mayor said the crocodile had most likely been abandoned there by a so-called “animal-lover” once he or she became tired of it and dismissed the concerns of those who fear the creation of a “crocodile colony” in Cretan rivers.
In the meantime, he added, the area has been fenced off and various traps will be set on Thursday so that the crocodile might be captured alive and not killed.
The mayor stressed that the crocodile’s location was pinpointed in an ecosystem that has grown around the artificial lake created by the dam, roughly 12 kilometres in circumference, which has become surrounded by lush vegetation, closer to tropical rainforest areas than the normal environment of Crete.
Mr Marinakis also ruled out the possibility of allowing the crocodile to remain in the lake as a tourist attraction, saying that Rethymno had absolutely “no ambition to have crocodile reproduction in its ecosystem.”

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