Crocodiles from Lausanne find new home in Morocco
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.
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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.
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“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
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