But there's only so much NICH can do. As Dr Melissa Badillo explained to us, they're not the experts, so they call in the Crocodile Research Coalition for assistance. And while they've educated the tour guides, they haven't been able to relocate the croc as yet. Here's what Dr Badillo told us over Zoom.
Dr. Melissa Badillo, Director, Institute of Archaeology
"We at Archaeology, we're not experts in crocodiles or in wildlife and so we depend on our partnership with the CRC and the folks at the, the CRC folks on how to best handle this and they've been out there several times. In last year, I believe they had done two relocations for us but unfortunately this is the natural habitat for those animals and so they keep returning. Now what Dr Tellez and her team at the CRC have advised is that as long as there is no interfering with the animals, they will keep their safe distance away from humans because the same way we're scared of them, they're scared of us. At the same time I completely understand the tour guides' perspective because it is their livelihood and there might be a possibility that something could happen and we don't know that. We have been reaching out to them, they have come out on numerous occasions. Unfortunately the time in between when the crocodile might be spotted as opposed to when they get there, that time lapses and the animal is not there whenever they get out there. They have been coming early in the mornings and late in the night, times when tour guides don't see them so maybe they're not aware that we have been trying to locate the animals. The team again is scheduled to come out this weekend and we're hoping it can result in them capturing the animal and relocating it."
"We have been embarking again with the CRC in doing some educational awareness outreach initiatives at Nohoch Che'en and we even erected a sign I think earlier this year or late last year, we put up a sign advising on safety and ensuring that they are aware that there's a possibility these animals are in the rivers."
"Please keep their distance, don't try to feed it, don't interfere with it, and as they've been doing, report any sightings to the office and the minute we have that, we pass that along to the CRC team."
We'll keep following the story.
