The butchered carcass of an endangered American crocodile was discovered Wednesday in a canal on the University of Miami campus.
A mesh bag with fishing chum found on the canal bank suggests the protected animal was lured to its death, then its head and tail were chopped off, said Officer Jorge Pino of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
While large alligator heads are sometimes mounted as trophies, Pino said it would be pure speculation to guess at the reasons for the croc beheading.
”We’re hoping that somebody will get outraged enough that they will call and tell us if they’ve heard or seen anything,” he said. “Right now, the reality is we have little to go on.”
Crocodiles have been both a curiosity and a concern on the UM campus since 2004, when a couple popped up in Lake Osceola.
One, an eight-foot, 200-pounder that students affectionately dubbed ”Donna” after school president Donna Shalala, was removed and relocated. A second larger one eluded expert trapper Todd Hardwick for months — despite the launch of the ”Croc-Tanic,” a floating, 12-foot sun deck rigged with a net designed to ensnare the cold-blooded reptiles — before disappearing.
Since then, other crocodiles have been spotted on the Coral Gables campus without incident.
UM issued a releasing saying the school was ”saddened” by the killing and was cooperating with the FWC on the investigation.
”The university has been an understanding neighbor to this species,” FWC biologist Lindsey Hord wrote in a statement.
UM worked with the state to develop an online program showing students and faculty how to co-exist with large and scary-looking creatures that are, at least typically, less aggressive than the alligators they are often mistaken for. There has never been a documented crocodile attack on a human in Florida.
Biologists now estimate the population, which has expanded over the past decade, to be around 1,400 to 2,000 in South Florida — with most of them living along the unpopulated coast of southern Florida Bay and Biscayne Bay.
American crocodiles are listed as an endangered species in Florida and a threatened species under federal law. Killing them is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Pino said the croc was larger than most typically seen in campus canals and lakes connected to the Gables waterway.
The dismembered carcass, which still weighed several hundred pounds and took three men to handle, was transported to a lab for a necropsy that could reveal clues to the crime.
Pino said a service worker made the gruesome find Wednesday afternoon. While it wasn’t yet clear when the animal was killed, the remains had not yet begun rotting or bloating, suggesting the killing was recent.
There were some signs of struggle along the canal, at the intersection of South Alhambra Circle and Ponce de Leon Boulevard near the campus police station, where the chum bag was found, Pino said.
”It lookes like they used that to lure the croc to come over to shore,” he said. “Then they they used a sharp object, a machete or hatchet, to do the rest.”
Anyone with information on this case is asked to call the FWC Wildlife Alert Hot line at 888-404-3922 or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.
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