'Lolong' to wait 6 months for Guinness World Records declaration

BUNAWAN, Agusan del Sur, Philippines – Visiting Australian zoologist and crocodile expert Dr. Adam Britton said that giant crocodile “Lolong” has to wait for six months before Guinness World Records declares the local reptile as the world’s largest crocodile in captivity.

Britton last Wednesday used an ordinary tape measure and declared that Lolong’s length is 21 feet and one inch. He said Guinness rules specify a grace period of six months before declaring a new world record after another crocodile caught in Australia had been declared the largest in captivity only last September.  

“I guess under Guinness’ rules, you have to wait six months after another one will be officially declared as world record holder. In the case of Lolong, it has to wait six months after Cassius Clay in Australia was declared the world’s largest crocodile in captivity last September 2011 and therefore by March 2012 Lolong would land in pages of Guinness Book of World Records,” said Britton who visited Lolong’s crocodile pen at the Bunawan Eco-Park.

“I will give my official measurements to Guinness,” he said.

Dr. Britton said the exact length of Lolong is 21 feet and one inch, not 21 feet and three inches as other newsmen reported. The crocodile weighs 1,075 kilos, he said.

Lolong was named after one of its captors Ernesto “Lolong” Conate, a Palawan-based crocodile hunter who was initially a member of the team that captured the animal last Sept. 3 in the swamps of Bunawan. Conate, however, died after suffering from heart attack before the crocodile was caught.

The Australian crocodile named Cassius, measuring 18 feet and weighing close to one ton, was captured in the Northern Territory in 1984.

Cassius was one of a few record holders to be honored with a double-page spread in the 2012 Book of Records, which was released on Sept. 15, 2011.

Britton claimed if Australia’s Cassius is smaller by one meter and landed in a double-page spread of the Guinness Book of Records, “how much more Lolong which is one meter longer?” said Britton, a British-born Australian citizen who is also a fellow at the Charles Darwin University in Darwin, Australia.

Britton has a doctorate from the University of Bristol and worked for over nine years as a research officer at the Darwin-based Wildlife Management International Pty Ltd. run by biologist Dr. Graham Webb.

Britton said he owns a wildlife consultancy, research and natural history filming firm Big Gecko Co. in Australia.

Lolong sedated

Britton said he injected Lolong with a tranquilizer to sedate the animal last Wednesday noon before the sleeping giant crocodile was measured.

“It is not because Lolong posed a danger to us who are measuring him but you could get the accurate measurement of him when he is sleeping considering his huge size… it is very difficult to measure accurately when the animal is conscious,” he explained.

Palawan-based crocodile expert Ronnie Sumiller, two other British representatives of National Geographic magazine, and caretakers at the Bunawan Eco-Park assisted Britton while measuring the sleeping Lolong.

“At 21 feet and one inch long, no doubt Lolong is at present the World’s biggest crocodile alive and in captivity,” Britton said.

A Filipina who claimed to be a National Geographic representative in the Philippines, prohibited local media men from taking photographs of the event.

“No, this is Nat Geo property,” she said.

Bunawan Mayor Edwin Elorde said Lolong, being kept at a fenced pond at the remote Bunawan Eco-Park and Research Center in Barangay Consuelo, is now eating once a week.

He said Lolong’s last meal was 12 kilos of pork last Nov. 9.

“Usually we have to feed him every seven days and evening is his time to eat,” Elorde added.

Elorde said the seven-day cycle was Lolong’s choice and not his caretakers’.

Sometimes Lolong also eats chicken or a mixture of pork and chicken once every seven days.

Elorde claimed from time to time they have to increase the volume of Lolong’s meal from five kilos, to seven kilos meat then to ten kilos; last Nov. 2, it was 12 kilos and the next meal would be 15 kilos already.

“Lolong prefers pork but we observed he only wanted to eat lean meats without fat, so we take out the fat from the pork talagang figure and diet conscious si Lolong,” Elorde said.

Crocodile expert Sumiller said Lolong is still adjusting to his new habitat and his diet and behavior changes from time to time.

Sumiller said he recommended to the caretakers a gradual increase of the supply of lean meat to Lolong.