MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — An American crocodile shot in the head with a spear gun and rescued in the Florida Keys on Monday “also has a bullet in between the eyes,” staff at Zoo Miami said on Tuesday.
The threatened reptile underwent a procedure at the zoo to remove the spear on Tuesday morning. She has been “given fluids, antibiotics and pain medication and is now resting, removed from the public,” according to the zoo.
“I was surprised that she was alive, so it just barely missed a number of vital organs,” Dr. Gwen Myers, a veterinarian who serves as Zoo Miami’s chief of animal health, said. “We were able to remove it, fortunately, without too much damage to the surrounding tissues.”
The crocodile had been spotted in Key Largo over the weekend but evaded rescue until Monday.
“She was remarkably still swimming and moving, evading people for three days with a spear sticking out of the back of her head,” Assistant Zoo Director Philip Hillary said. “The recovery for many crocodilians is (that) they can sustain a pretty big injury. They have an amazing immune system. They live in some poor conditions out in the wild, and they can recover very easily.”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission continued their search for whoever shot the crocodile, protected under state and federal law.
“These are not monsters. These are not animals that you need to be terrified of,” Myers said. “We need to learn to coexist with them, because they are really important to our ecosystem and to our waterways. They don’t want to come and harm you.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact the FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922.
The agency is offering a reward of up to $1,000.
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