Human Interest

Zipliner’s shoe removed from stomach of huge crocodile in Florida

Miami, United States, Feb 18 (efe-epa).- A huge female Nile crocodile from a zoo in St. Augustine, Florida, had to undergo surgery to have a zipliner’s shoe removed from her stomach.

Anuket, measuring 3.2 meters (10.5 feet) long and weighing 154 kilograms (341 pounds), is recovering at the Alligator Farm Zoological Park from surgery performed at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine.

The shoe had fallen off a visitor who was ziplining at the zoo, and it landed in her enclosure.

The reptile was seen with the shoe in its mouth in December. She swallowed it and regurgitated it, but swallowed it again and it lodged in her stomach, according to a statement this week from the veterinary school that saved her life.

At the zoo, keepers tried to get her to expel it naturally but were unsuccessful, so Anuket ended up in the hospital where resident Dr Garrett Fraess attempted to remove it by reaching through her esophagus. However, this was unsuccessful.

Anuket was then taken to the operating room where large animal surgeon Dr Adam Biedrzycki tried to push the shoe into the esophagus through an incision, which also failed.

The crocodile then underwent stomach surgery during which the shoe was finally removed.

The Nile crocodile spent the night at the veterinary college and the next day she returned to her home to the zoo to recover and is doing well, the college said. EFE-EPA

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