“This bag was once seen floating in the slow flowing rivers of Southeast Asia and IndonesiaCan we read it on the sign outside the Siamese crocodile enclosure at London Zoo? “Was“? We use the past tense because there are no more animals in London’s cage. No more live animals, anyway. To make visitors aware of this type of decline, the zoo has chosen to tackle one of the causes of this decline: poaching, and specifically that which aims to supply luxury leather goods. And so, to replace the crocodile with a bag made of its scales. “Over 80% of these crocodiles have disappeared within 75 years. As before your eyes, many have been hunted for their skins in wildlife trafficking“, the sign states in more detail.
In an interview with Britain’s Huffington Post, zoo officials said the facility has actually been operating for months, but only recently became popular on social media thanks to tweets that have been shared more than 70,000 times.
Ben Tapley, who is responsible for reptiles and amphibians at the London facility, explains that the bag in question was indeed a crocodile skin that was seized at a British airport and given to the zoo.for educational purposes“. “Zoological Society of London (ZSL, the organization that owns this zoo, editor’s note) works with governments and local communities to protect wildlife and support law enforcement agencies targeting trafficking networks.” assures the specialist.
The three- to four-meter-long Siamese crocodile, which lives in Cambodia, Vietnam or even Laos, is “critically endangered” according to the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) list. Only a few hundred specimens remain in the wild, compared to about 5,000 in captivity. If the London Zoo does not have a (real) Siamese crocodile, its visitors, on the other hand, can meet crocodiles from the Philippines.
Source: Le Figaro
