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.
