Dozens of escaped crocodiles caught after flood in eastern Thailand

Dozens of escaped crocodiles were caught after floods hit a farm in eastern Thailand.

The reptiles escaped their enclosure at the 200-pond crocodile farm when the floodwaters reached 3ft-high in Trat province early in the morning on June 21.

As the water rose, the animals crawled out of the ponds and sneaked outside the compound through drainage systems. Animal rescuers were contacted by the farm owner after they found out that the crocodiles had escaped and began their search in the area.

Farm owner Phirom Khannak said: ‘My farm has 200 ponds which had one crocodile each.

30 had already escaped through the drainage.

‘There was forest water flowing to our farm nearby.

Due to heavy rains we were easily flooded.

I thought of relocating because of this but due to the pandemic it had been delayed.’ After three hours of searching 21, were caught by the rescue team one of which was injured after being ran over by a car.

All of the crocodiles were sent back to the farm.

The other nine crocodiles were still missing as the search operation continued.

They were believed to be hiding under canals so the team were checking on the passages.

Farm worker Pon Don said the missing crocodiles could now be hungry as they were used to eating chicken everyday.

He said: ‘Crocodiles eat every day.

I feed them with chicken parts so they must have been hungry already.

When they grow up they will be bought by bigger farms for 10,000 to 12,000 baht.’ Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines are at the start of their tropical monsoon rainy season, which lasts until October or November.

Soaring temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius are often followed by powerful tropical storms with thunder, lightning, rain and flash floods.