A giant crocodile captured in Agusan del Sur in the Philippines last Saturday, September 2, is believed to be the biggest captive crocodile to date.

The said Philippine adult male crocodile, measuring 21 ft or 6.4 meters long, was captured alive along a creek by crocodile farm staff and residents in Bunawan in Agusan del Sur. It we are to check the records, the Philippine crocodile is the biggest so far.

Giant Crocodile captured in Agusan del Sur, Philippines
Photo Credit: Associated Press

Two larger certifiable records of the biggest crocodiles in the world are both of 6.2 metres (20 ft) adult crocodiles. The first crocodile was shot in the Mary River in the Northern Territory of Australia in 1974 by poachers and measured by wildlife rangers.

The second crocodile was killed in 1983 in the Fly River, Papua New Guinea. In the case of the second crocodile it was actually the skin that was measured by zoologist Jerome Montague, and as skins are known to underestimate the size of the actual animal, it is possible this crocodile was at least another 10 cm longer.

The largest crocodile ever held in captivity, on the other hand, is an Estuarine–Siamese hybrid named Yai (meaning “big” in Thai) which was born on June 10,1972, at the famous Samutprakarn Crocodile Farm and Zoo in Thailand. This animal measures 6 m (19.69 ft) (19 ft 8 in) in length and weighs 1114.27 kg.

The largest captive crocodile alive in the US is located in South Carolina. In June 2002, Alligator Adventure introduced Utan, born in 1964 in Thailand. At 20 feet (6.1 m) long and weighing in at more than a ton, “Utan”, the largest crocodile to ever be exhibited in the United States resides in Myrtle Beach.

The records are set to be changed as the giant crocodile which was captured in Agusan del Sur over the weekend has a measurement of 6.4 meters, by far the biggest if it becomes official.

Captured alive, the giant crocodile weighs around 2,370 pounds or 1,075 kilograms.

According to the town Mayor Edwin Cox Elorde it took almost 100 people to place the reptile in a fenced cage. The mayor also said that they are planning to build an eco-tourism park for species found in a vast marshland in Agusan (an impoverished region about 515 miles southeast of Manila) featuring the giant crocodile which is about to become the biggest captive crocodile in the world.

The giant crocodile was first seen by local farm villagers killing a water buffalo (carabao) last month and was also suspected of having attacked a fisherman who went missing in July, according to reports.

After they spotted the giant reptile, villagers and members of the crocodile farm staff set four traps, which the giant crocodile destroyed. They then used sturdier traps using steel cables, one of which finally caught the giant crocodile late Saturday.

Video courtesy of popis191 from YouTube