Crocodile caught in NCotabato to be released Friday

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines  --- Local officials will set free at the Liguasan Marsh on Friday the 2.9 meter crocodile accidentally caught two weeks ago by fishermen harvesting tilapias with a net.

Mlang Mayor Joselito Piñol told reporters the crocodile, which they named “Malang,” will be released right where it was caught.

Experts from the Palawan Wildlife Rescue Center will help facilitate Malang’s release, according to Piñol.

Malang was caught by fishermen in Barangay Dungguan in the southwest of Mlang, one of the gateways to the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta.

Piñol said it took them two weeks to nurse the crocodile back to health and prepare it for his return to the wild.

“Veterinarians had to treat the creature first of severe dehydration caused by his captivity in Barangay Dungguan without food and water for several days,” Piñol said.

Veronica Guzman, manager of PWRC, said Malang, a freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus Mindorensis), is now healthy enough to be freed in the wild.

Malang is not the first crocodile ever caught in the vast Liguasan delta, located at the tri-boundary of the neighboring Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces, and teems with endemic bird, fish, and reptile species.

The marsh, the world’s largest in terms of surface area, is also said to have huge deposits of natural gas.

Fishermen in Maguindanao’s Pagalungan town, also located along the Liguasan Marsh, caught in 1994 a 16-feet crocodile in the northern side of the delta.

Piñol said they are expecting environmentalists from across Central Mindanao to escort Malang back to the swampy area in Barangay Dungguan.