“Ok I got it, let it go”.
Wildlife veterinarian Nourin Chai firmly grips the jaw of a dwarf crocodile.
A reptile that is dwarf only in name since it measures no less than two meters in length.
The female struggles vigorously, utters intense cries, before being pushed with difficulty into her transport tube.
The operation is dangerous.
Especially since it must be repeated for three different reptiles: two dwarf crocodiles and a caiman.
All of them had until then been kept in a pavilion in Étrechy, in Essonne (91).
Twenty years passed without an ounce of natural light for the former.
A narrow vivarium on the first floor for the second.
When the owners of these animals divorce, the husband is removed from the family home and can no longer take care of these demanding animals.
Yet he was the only one authorized to take care of these saurians.
His ex-spouse is not authorized to hold them at home.
She therefore had to call on the Animal Protection Action association to organize an exfiltration of her cumbersome residents.
At the beginning of September, the association finally obtained all the authorizations for a transfer of the animals to a specialized sanctuary in Munich, Germany, after more than a month of waiting.
"The challenge of this day is that the animals can be transferred to a place that is at least adapted to their physiological needs and that they leave a garage with only artificial light", specifies Arnauld Lhomme, investigator within this organism.
Discover our video report, shot in immersion in this delicate operation.
