For the last three weeks the SEPRONA unit of the Guardia Civil have been hunting for a large crocodile spotted by a concerned resident in an area with artificial lagoons in Mijas. The resident called the police after seeing the animal crossing a track, before disappearing into a pond. The authorities took the complaint seriously saying that the witness’ statement was credible. The witness described the animal’s head as being “flat, elongated, about two feet in length and with teeth on the sides”.
Last Thursday investigators found tracks that confirmed the sighting and say that they correspond to a crocodile measuring two metres in length and weighing up to 70 kilos. Crocodiles and alligators are sometimes brought to Spain illegally as pets and it is believed that one of these escaped or was released by the owner. Now the mayor of the town wants to install a manned watchtower at the lagoons, borrowed from one of the local beaches, in an effort to find the animal.
The creature was spotted in Majada Vieja , near the border between the towns of Mijas and Ojén and the urbanisation La Mairena, where there are “several long artificial ponds connected by various streams” that could be “a favourable habitat for the survival of such animals.”
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