The Tragic Story of the Largest Crocodile In Captivity

Capturing the monster crocodile

Lolong was a crocodile in the Philippines that intimidated everyone who saw him. That’s because of his immense size: 20 feet by three inches, making this one of the largest crocodiles that has ever been measured. No one man was ever going to be able to capture such a beast, and it ultimately took a small army to take him down.

Local government officials, local residents, and professional crocodile hunters all teamed up to capture Lolong. When all was said and done, they had about 100 people assembled. Even with all this manpower, it took three whole weeks for them to capture this huge crocodile. Most dramatically, Lolong broke free of his ropes a couple of times, causing those trying to restrain him to fear for their lives!

The possible crimes of Lolong

At this point, you’re probably asking the obvious question: why did all of these people go to so much trouble to capture a giant crocodile? Especially one that could have hurt or even killed them if things got out of hand. But the residents, city officials, and professional crocodile hunters all had an important reason for hunting Lolong: they worried their lives were in danger!

Some believed that Lolong was responsible for eating a fisherman and a 10-year-old girl. Therefore, residents felt that capturing this creature was the best way to protect themselves and their families. Unfortunately, nobody was completely certain whether Lolong was guilty of these crimes because there were rumors of another, even larger crocodile in the area.

Aside from possibly eating those humans, Lolong was also suspected of munching on the local water buffalo population. Interestingly, after this crocodile was captured and his stomach analyzed, there was no evidence of either buffalo or human remains, so Lolong may have been completely innocent of all wrongdoing.

This killer crocodile makes history

While the Bunawa local residents helped to capture Lolong, nobody was exactly sure what they were going to end up doing with that crocodile after it was captured. Eventually, the mayor decided to display the crocodile as the centerpiece of a special ecotourism park. The mayor’s logic was simple: he knew that people would travel far and wide to see Lolong, injecting money into the local economy and boosting the local tourism industry.

While it generated some controversy (more on this soon), the mayor’s plan was successful: Lolong became a major tourist attraction and helped to bring plenty of money into the area. And the crocodile helped really put the area on the map: in June 2012, Lolong was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the “world’s largest crocodile in captivity.”

This increased Lolong’s global popularity. But it also increased public resistance to keeping this magnificent creature in captivity.

The croc and the controversy

Before too long, Bunawan’s local economy became partially reliant on the tourism trade. Lolong played a major part in the economy, but one group of residents wanted to change all that. The activist Animal Kingdom Foundation Inc. teamed up with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and tried to petition for Lolong’s release back into nature.

They were unsuccessful in securing Lolong’s release, and this giant crocodile was a mainstay of the local tourism trade until the day he died. And until that happened, the public continued to debate the ethical merits of keeping this crocodile in captivity or releasing it.

The death (and afterlife) of Lolong

Lolong, sadly, didn’t last long in captivity. Less than two years after his capture, he was found dead of pneumonia and cardiac arrest. Making matters worse is that a necropsy revealed that the creature was also suffering from fungal infection and stress that he might have avoided if he had been released into the wild.

Surprisingly, Lolong still lives on…at least, as a very vivid memory. His remains have been stuffed, and he’s now on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Manila. So if you’re ever in the area, you can pop in and get a glimpse at a crocodile that became the stuff of legend.