South Florida already has its portion of scourge , from tornadoes toflesh - eating bacterialurking in ocean waters . Now occupier can add hoi polloi - run through crocodiles to the list .
Nile crocodile , which can grow to 16 infantry in length and bung the scale at 1600 pounds , have been positively identified near Miami , herpetologistsconfirmed to theOrlando SentinelThursday . ( One was discovered as a crosshatch on the porch of a dwelling house . ) The crocs cause a reported 200 fatalities in sub - Saharan Africa annually . According toNational Geographic , the animals mostly dine on fish " but it will assail almost anything unfortunate enough to get over its way , include zebras , small hippo , porcupine , chick , and other crocodile . It will also scavenge carrion , and can consume up to half its body weight at a feeding . "
The research worker , who of late published their findings in the journalHerpetological Conservation and Biology[PDF ] , do n’t know how the species made its path to southerly Florida . Two of the four animals found so far — which were captured between 2010 and 2014 — are link up , and a third may also be kin . Their genetic visibility is n’t a match for crocs at local habitats like Disney ’s Animal Kingdom , so get away is an unlikely account . ( The 4th croc did get away from a " safari " theme park on a reservation and lived in the wild for four years , but the researcher were ineffective to obtain a tissue sample distribution from it . ) It ’s potential that an animate being smuggler lost track of them or that someone intentionally bring out them in the Everglades .
While it ’s too early to tell if the Nile croc captures hint at an plague , Florida has ahistoryof struggling with trespassing species . In 1931 , a Cuban tree frog hitched a ride in packing fabric before multiplying and gobbling up Florida ’s delectable aboriginal frogs , and the body politic direct anannual Burmese python huntto corral the predator ’s population in the Everglades .
[ h / tOrlando Sentinel ]
