A Costa Rican family is having the worst time of their life. Her 8-year-old son was eaten by a crocodile while swimming in the Matina River in Limón. Julio Otero and his wife Margini Fernández Flores have not yet recovered from the astonishment of the heartbreaking accident that ended the child’s life.
The dramatic event took place a week ago and since then the family has asked to find the animal and sacrifice it to give the child a Christian burial.
“One hypothesis is that the animal has brought the child into the den or cave and there are burrows and caves but we don’t know which one it is, we have tried to cover and visualize some of them, we have implemented a hook with a undress to see if it pulls something , but to no avail, ”said Tatiana Díaz, Limón’s regional director of the Red Cross.
“Since we don’t know which cave it is, or which crocodile because there are several, it’s very difficult to focus on a single point. We know there are crocodiles and burrows, but we don’t have an idea or scheme to work on,” he said. said Diaz.
Diaz explained that the lack of clues and evidence will determine whether rescuers will remain in the area or whether rescue will run out. So far, they haven’t found a working pattern or clue that would allow them to keep track of where to look.
Julio Otero, father of the attacked child, told La Nación de Costa Rica that his wife had told him that she and their five children were near the river bed in a dry area and surprisingly, without being seen before, the animal threw itself at the baby and, although it tried to free it, it did not succeed.
“The hardest thing for my wife was seeing the crocodile floating with my son’s body” declared Don Julio Otero, saying that his wife is destroyed.
Julio was a third grade boy in Matina and, according to his father, himhe dreamed of being “a great engineer or a great doctor”. He added that at the time of the attack, the boy was in a spot where the water reached below his knees.
What are the species that attack people
The Nile crocodile, Crocodylus niloticus, is usually involved in most attacks each year. It is often said to kill more people in Africa than any other animal. However, according to the CrocBITE database, they are second only to the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus).
Nile crocodile attacks are likely to be underrepresented because data is difficult to obtain in many countries and many attacks go unreported. In some countries the number of attacks seems scandalous. In Mozambique, for example, it is estimated that there are more than 300 attacks each. With incomplete reports in many countries it is difficult to know the exact figures.
Attacks on humans by crocodiles are, statistically speaking, very rare.
Source: Clarin
