“
You could once see this bag swimming in the slow-flowing rivers of Southeast Asia and Indonesia
,” reads the sign that sits in front of what was once the Siamese crocodile enclosure at the zoo. from London.
"
Was
"?
We use the past tense because there are no more animals in the London cage.
No more living animals, anyway.
To make visitors aware of the decline of this species, the animal park has chosen to confront them with one of the causes of this decline: poaching, and in particular that which aims to supply luxury leather goods.
And therefore, to replace the crocodile with a bag made with its scales.
"
In 75 years, more than 80% of these crocodiles have disappeared.
Like the one in front of you, many have been hunted for their skins as part of illegal wildlife trafficking
,” the sign added.
Interviewed by the UK's Huffington Post, zoo officials say the facility has actually been in place for months - but only recently gained social media fame, thanks to a Tweet shared over 70,000 times.
Read alsoShould we still go to the zoo?
Ben Tapley, who is in charge of reptiles and amphibians for the London establishment, explains that the handbag in question - indeed crocodile skin - was confiscated at a British airport and given to the zoo "
for educational
”.
“The Zoological Society of London
(ZSL, an organization of which the zoo in question is a part, editor’s note)
works with governments and local communities to protect wildlife and support law enforcement agencies that target trafficking networks”,
assures the specialist.
Three to four meters long, the Siamese crocodile, which lives in Cambodia, Vietnam or even Laos, is "in critical danger of extinction", according to the list of the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature). ).
There are only a few hundred specimens left in the wild against about 5,000 in captivity.
If the London Zoo does not have a (real) Siamese crocodile, its visitors can on the other hand come across crocodiles from the Philippines.