The Lézarde crocodile is the subject of much curiosity. The photos are published regularly on social networks. Tracked down by experts, the chestnut has not yet been captured. He poses a threat to anyone who crosses his path.
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It’s a great success, Georges. It doesn’t come out much. Sometimes it can be seen on the banks behind the Place d’Armes shopping center. It takes the sun and when it sees that we are watching or filming it too closely, it dives into the water and disappears. But people are happy enough to see it.
Employee of the Municipality of Lamentin
This testimony of an employee of the municipality of Lamentin reflects the opinion that some people have of the presence of the crocodile in Martinique nicknamed Giorgio. The three-meter-long animal was photographed for the first time by a gendarmerie helicopter. It was 2016. The cages were then placed at the mouth of the Lézarde to capture it. Without success.
In the process, authorities called Olivier Behra, a crocodile specialist from the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN). The man spent his childhood in Cameroon. He intervened in Gabon, Congo and the Central African Republic to identify the saurians, before fighting the poaching of these animals in Madagascar.
Olivier Behra, crocodile specialist at the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN).
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In Martinique, where he landed in October 2016, Olivier Behra was unable to capture the animal. The French “Crocodile Dundee”, however, spends several nights tracking him down. He wants to take advantage of those hours when a Saurian’s eyes shine in the dark to catch him with a lasso or a net. But the operation was affected by the flooding of the rivers due to heavy rains that cloud the tracks.
For five years, Georges is forgotten. Not a trace. Not a photo. Not the slightest warning from a passer-by or a runner of his presence in a stream or on a bank. The hunters will claim to have finally shot him. But in 2021 the crocodile resurfaces with photos published in October and November by Internet users on social networks. We have to resume the hunt.
The mangrove of Lamentin (Martinique).
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Three other specialists from France and Austria arrive in Martinique in February 2022, as part of an operation carried out with huge resources for fifteen days by the services of the Department of the Environment, Planning and Housing (DEAL), with the support from the Office National des Forêts (ONF), the Department of the Sea, the French Bureau for Biodiversity and the municipality of Le Lamentin.
Patrols alternate day and night on the Mamin canal, which passes in front of the Place d’Armes shopping center, on the Lézarde river and more generally in the mangroves: Gaigneron canal, Port Cohé … The teams use cameras that are activated automatically when it passes an animal. Also mobilized a drone and boats. But the crocodile remains untraceable.
Research area between Lamentin and Fort-de-France.
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Eight months after these unsuccessful hunts, the experts must face the facts: Georges has a “favorable environment” making it unlikely to be captured. So one of two things. Or we give up hunting, let him live, hoping he won’t hurt anyone. Or it poses a danger, in which case he must be shot if he gets too close to the houses.
Meanwhile, the authorities are calling for vigilance:
It is a wild animal in the wild. It has a large recreation area. If it is still there, it is because it finds its food in the surrounding environment. But beware, he is capable of biting and killing, if something bothers him or scares him. You should therefore not approach to take pictures but quickly report your presence.
