The Swiss voice in the world since 1935

Crocodiles from Lausanne find new home in Morocco

Baby crocodile
The species conservation project featuring 16 crocodiles (not pictured) is a first in Africa Keystone

Sixteen young West African crocodiles bred by the Aquatis aquarium in Lausanne were transported to Morocco on Wednesday. Sixty years after their disappearance there, the reptiles are to be gradually reintroduced into their natural environment.

Check out our selection of newsletters. Subscribe here.

In this form, the species conservation project is a first in Africa. The animals were fitted with microchips, particularly with regard to customs clearance. They were housed in stable individual compartments, Aquatis director Michel Ansermet told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA on Wednesday.

+ Crocodile shot after biting zookeeper at Zurich Zoo

“Everything went very well, it was all perfectly calm,” he said.

The crocodiles were brought to Geneva in a van by a special transporter and then loaded onto a plane.

“The arrival in Agadir is planned at night so that the animals are not exposed to the extreme heat,” said Ansermet, who is accompanying the crocodiles.

The cold-blooded animals are currently 42-106 centimetres long. Two of them hatched in 2019, another 14 in 2022.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Daily news

Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox.

Daily

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

The storm from the USA continues to sweep through the Swiss stock market

More

US storm continues to sweep through Swiss stock market

This content was published on The Swiss stock market continued to trade in the red mid-afternoon on Monday, following in the wake of the world's stock markets, which fell heavily as a result of the trade war launched by Donald Trump.

Read more: US storm continues to sweep through Swiss stock market
Swiss vote on e-ID likely

More

Swiss likely to vote on e-ID

This content was published on The referendum committee announced in Bern on Monday that it had collected more than 60,000 signatures against the e-ID project. The initials still need to be approved.

Read more: Swiss likely to vote on e-ID
Increase in offences committed by minors in Ticino

More

Crimes committed by minors increase in Ticino

This content was published on The number of offences committed by minors in canton Ticino, southern Switzerland, rose by over 20% in 2024 compared to the previous year.

Read more: Crimes committed by minors increase in Ticino

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR