Live crocodile captured by police at reservoir in Spain

The Guardia Civil's nature protection service (Seprona) has opened an investigation to locate the person who has released a yacare caiman in the Almansa reservoir in Albacete, Spain.

The reptile was spotted by two young people from the Almansa reservoir fishing association. They initially thought that the animal was a an alligator.

The more than a metre-long caiman was captured with bait by Seprona officers, in collaboration with an environmental team, members of the fishing club and staff from the Albacete wildlife recovery centre. The specimen has been sent to Madrid Zoo. The place where it was found is a regular bathing area, located near a jetty.

The yacare caiman comes from the subtropical regions of South America and can reach a length of one and a half metres as an adult. Due to its mottled skin it became highly sought after by the footwear industry. Curiously, Almansa is one of the main footwear producing areas in Spain.

However, nowadays, the species is protected by legislation as it is registered in the convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora. For this reason, the main line of investigation is that this caiman ended up in Spain through illegal pet trade.

Yacare caimans breed in the summer. It's a carnivorous reptile and its diet usually consists of fish, crustaceans, snails and other molluscs. It has a very particular way of hunting: it stalks motionless with its mouth open, waiting for prey that comes within its reach. It is even capable of capturing other reptiles and small mammals in cases of extreme hunger. In principle, it is not aggressive towards humans.