Reports of wild Crocodile named Conrad spark terror in... Bavaria

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Reports of wild Crocodile named Conrad spark terror in... Bavaria

 

Last updated at 16:23pm on 11th October 2007 Comments

The hills are alive with the sound of snapping jaws as Conrad the crocodile goes hunting for supper in the jungleland of...Bavaria.

Last year it was a bear called Bruno in the sights of local hunters - now a croc is said to be stalking the south German countryside.

Signs up gone up saying "Warning - Crocodile Danger!" around ponds where the most lethal wildlife used to be catfish and pike.

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Snap: A half ton killer is feared to be lurking in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps looking for pray

 

Now the search is intensifying for Conrad - reputed to be up to two metres long - in water-filled quarries, meadows and lakes with firemen being called in to assist.

Last year Bruno, a brown bear that wandered across the Alps from Italy, was shot dead by a hunter after cutting a swathe of destruction through sheep herds, beehives and small villages in a chase that knocked the World Cup from newpaper headlines.

Now it is Conrad that has got the Germans on the run in the area around Schwarzenfeld.

Police are asking people to be careful and keep their eyes open for the crocodile following a a sighting on Tuesday.

"One man is absolutely convinced that it was a crocodile," said police spokesman Peter Kraemer.

The alleged crocodile was spotted by a 36-year-old insurance salesman who was fishing in one of the local water-filled former quarries that were worked by Nazi slave labourers in WW2.

He claims he was "surprised" by a crocodile that turned and bolted away, gliding across the water with powerful wavings of its tail.

Further credence was given to the man's reported sighting when a local woman revealed that she, too, had seen a crocodile two weeks ago.

According to the police, "The woman is certain that she saw the back of a crocodile."

The woman chose not to report the sighting earlier because she thought no one would believe her, they added.

 

Bruno the bear was last year spotted in Bavaria

 

Forty members of the local police, fire and water rescue departments searched the area's lakes and quarries Tuesday using a helicopter, boats and infra-red heat-detecting cameras.

But no croc was discovered.

The police spokesman also told reporters that there are no zoological gardens in the area from which a crocodile could have escaped.

"If it really is a crocodile, we guess that it was probably kept illegally and then released," he added.

He also warned the population to be particularly wary at dawn and dusk, a crocodile's typical feeding times.

According to a zoologist who spoke with reporters, a crocodile could survive in the waters without any problem, provided the water temperature remained above freezing point and there were enough fish in the water to satisfy a crocodile's nutritional needs.

Police have yet to decide whether the hunt will be continued.

In recent years Germans have become avid collectors of exotic pets, importing snakes, terrapins, spiders, lizards, assorted other reptiles and birds in record numbers.

Three years ago a man who kept bird eating spiders in his flat in Dortmund was found covered in his collection of creepy crawlies after he died from a heart attack and they swarmed from their glass tanks over him.

There have also been sightings of escaped pythons and boa-constrictor snakes. Last year in Berlin a woman had to call firemen to remove a ten foot long python that escaped from her neighbour's apartment to take up residence under her sofa.