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The death of a giant crocodile after two years in captivity, has outraged social media users.
It as the world’s largest saltwater crocodile in captivity, and this 21ft creature called Lolong, was caught and caged in 2011 after he was suspected of biting a schoolgirl’s head off and eating a fisherman, reports Daily Star.
At 21 feet and 157st, Lolong was declared the biggest of its kind in captivity by Guinness World Records in 2012.
But following his capture in September 2011 the mighty beast suffered from so much stress that by February 2013 he was found in his Philippines enclosure upside down with a bloated stomach.
An image of a man poking Lolong with a stick while he was still alive has recently been shared on the Reddit community Interestingasf***, reigniting interest in the sad story.
The distressing snap was captioned: “‘Lolong’ was the largest saltwater crocodile in captivity. He died because of ‘fungal infection’ and ‘stress’ two years after being captured.”
Reports of Lolong’s death at the time stated that he was originally hunted for three weeks after killing at least one person in the Philippines.
The monster croc was suspected of eating a fisherman who went missing in the town of Bunawan, and also of eating a 12-year-old schoolgirl whose head had been found two years earlier.
Once captured the crocodile became the star attraction of an eco-tourism park.
Bunawan Mayor Edwin Elorde said Lolong had been ill for several weeks before his passing. The Mayor told the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper: “He refused to eat since last month and we noticed a change in the colour of his faeces.
“Our personnel also noticed an unusual ballooning of the reptile’s belly.”
Local vet Alex Collantes claimed unseasonably cold weather could have brought about the downward spiral in Lolong’s health, BBC News reported.
Mr Elorde said he hoped Lolong’s body could be preserved so “people can still look and marvel at him”, and according to Reddit users that is exactly what happened next.
Someone commented: “His remains are displayed at the National Museum of Natural History in Manila.”
Another who had visited the corpse said: “Went to see it when I was there some years ago. Its very, very big. Sort of like seeing a dinosaur recreation. Except you know.. these things still live.”
