According to this article in Al-Joumhouria, at least three crocodiles were spotted in Beirut river near Karantina after someone dumped them there. After checking with a veterinarian, it turned out these are actually Nile crocodiles, a specie that is quite dangerous (do there exist safe ones?).
Both ministries of environment and agriculture were unfortunately unaware of this story, and I guess the crocodiles will most probably die on their own before these ministries decide to take any action. So for the time being, Animals Lebanon will be working on catching them and returning them back to Africa.
You can read the full article here.
Update:
Below is a video showing one of the crocodiles in Beirut river.
It’s been common in my experience to see young Nile crocs in the so called pet stores in Beirut, so the fact they’ve been released as teens/adults into the wild doesn’t surprise me at all. Whatever happened to the ratification of CITES for Lebanon?
oh come on lets keep them !!!!! lol
Should implement some laws concerning importing foreign animals
especially dangerous ones!
PS: the guy throwing the rocks should be locked in a cage and thrown rocks at.