Taiwanese veterinarian Chang Po-yu had his forearm torn off by a crocodile on Wednesday at the Shaoshan Zoo in the southern Taiwan city of Kaohsiung. The endangered, 17 year old Nile crocodile had been hit with a tranquilizer dart, but still not fully anesthetized when the zoo worker reached his arm through an iron rail to medicate it. I guess they tend to sit still a lot so it can be hard to tell if they are really knocked out or not.
Chang was rushed to the hospital while the rest of the team pondered how to recover the severed limb so that it could be re-attached. They finally settled on a plan and “shot two bullets at the crocodile’s neck,” causing it to release the bloody arm. It is not clear exactly what kind of bullets were used, however, because the giant crocodile “was unharmed as we didn’t find any bullet holes on its hide”. Zoo workers suspect that the animal was “just shocked”. Maybe they were using BB’s.
Chang had his forearm reattached Today and is now recovering from the surgery. They’re pretty grisly, but more photos can be seen here if that’s your thing.
Now I want a crocodile as a pet! Where can I buy one, Mr. Spiralbound?
OMG Cliff! That is pretty sick!
I’m confused. The link you provided states that they had to kill the croc to get the arm back.
Is it dead or not?
Seems to be a case of armed robbery, if you ask me…
Yeah, that last link said that, but I read a couple of other sources that say the animal finally fell asleep, and they examined it, finding no wounds from the bullets. They went on to say that the crocodile was fine.
Poor dead croc. I didn’t really need to leave this comment, not to sound insensitive. I just wanted to see my new gravatar in action with borks SexyComments plugin.
Can someone lend a hand?
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you… or don’t feed the mouth that bites you?
What, no picture? I feel cheated.