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Saturday, July 12, 2025

7-foot caiman attacks south family's dog

by

20140917

San Fer­nan­do game war­dens yes­ter­day cap­tured a sev­en-foot-long caiman in a fam­i­ly's yard af­ter it bit a guard dog on the face.The fe­male caiman, which ap­peared to be preg­nant, was cap­tured in Mara­bel­la short­ly af­ter Di­nesh Ma­habir, 32, alert­ed game war­dens that the rep­tile was in his en­closed gar­den at Park Lane, Gopaul Lands. Ma­habir told the T&T Guardian that around 1.30 am he was awak­ened by his dogs bark­ing loud­ly in an area of his gar­den, which was sur­round­ed by a con­crete and wire wall.

"I went out­side and went by the dogs. I flashed the light and saw two eyes glit­ter­ing in the gar­den and re­alise it was a caiman. I pull away the dogs and lock them up. I saw one of the dogs, Sparky, with a cut on his face. The caiman bite him on his face," Ma­habir said."I was not scared, but I wish I had seen it soon­er so I could have pre­vent­ed it from hurt­ing my dog."

He said Sparky, a mixed Ger­man Shep­herd, was do­ing well af­ter his en­counter with the caiman, but said he would have to take the dog to the vet to get treat­ment on the wound the caiman caused.Ma­habir said it was the first time his fam­i­ly had en­coun­tered a caiman on their prop­er­ty.

When the T&T Guardian ar­rived at Ma­habir's home at 10 am, game war­dens Steve Seep­er­sad, Bisham Mad­hu and Je­re­my Din­di­al, to­geth­er with ho­n­ourary war­dens Dar­ius Baldeo and Ren­nie Lok­nath, were on the scene.Din­di­al, Baldeo, Mad­hu and Lok­nath en­tered the gar­den and cor­nered the caiman against a wall. Us­ing a catch­ing pole with a rope at the end, Din­di­al hooked the jaw of the caiman, which be­gan hiss­ing loud­ly and strug­gling wild­ly as he pulled it in­to a clear­ing in the gar­den.

Baldeo then put a piece of cloth over its face and jumped on­to the an­i­mal's back to tie its mouth and legs.The an­i­mal be­gan thrash­ing about and flip­ping its tail from side to side but Baldeo, who is al­so di­rec­tor of the Rep­tile Con­ser­va­tion Cen­tre, grabbed its jaw and tied its mouth shut with black tape. He al­so tied its legs as well. He then lift­ed the rep­tile and put it in the back of a Min­istry of the En­vi­ron­ment pick­up.

Seep­er­sad said the caiman will be tak­en to the Godineau Riv­er, Oropouche, where it will be re­leased in­to the wild. He said the caiman may have been washed in­to the area af­ter Tues­day's heavy rains in South Trinidad and crawled on­to Ma­habir's prop­er­ty from the drain.


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