Rare Cuban crocodile dies at iconic Chennai croc park due to persistent stress from loud music, devastated founder shares the news

In another incident caused by human recklessness, a Cuban crocodile has died due to loud hotel music at a Chennai zoo, as announced by Romulus Whitaker, co-founder of Madras Crocodile Bank.

Miles away from his original home, once a healthy Cuban crocodile that lay on its belly, the tragic image shows her lying on her back, spread-eagled in the dirt. The news came out in the open when the Facebook page - Madras Crocodile Bank Trust/Centre for Herpetology, posted the news that one of their Cuban crocodiles has died as a result of stress caused by the loud music from a top hotel next door.  

"There is no doubt in my mind that the animal died as a result of stress caused by the vibrations, and there are precedents to this from the zoo community abroad," said Whitaker, a conservationist and the co-founder of the reptile zoo, in his Facebook post. 

"This is really too much!" he continued. The Madras Crocodile Bank has also tagged the hotel in its Facebook post, but there has been no response on the Sheraton page yet. He has explicitly stated his decision that he is now considering to move the group to another location, as expensive it may be, as he is shaken by the loss.

You can read the post here: 

In fact, Romulus Whitaker had complained about the hotel in February, too as his previous posts indicate. A meeting was held to discuss the 'acceptable decimal limits and permitted timings.' 

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An optimistic Whitaker had also written, "We look forward to receiving this report and proceeding further to resolve this issue once and for all. As always, our main concern is for the welfare of the breeding groups of 2000 crocodiles and other reptiles at the Croc Bank, without compromise."

Unfortunately, their recent post revealed the drastic turn of events. 

Cuban crocodiles are critically endangered and they live in only two places in the wild - both of them are in Cuba. They are also highly vulnerable because of the limited nature of its distribution, and humans have hunted his species to near extinction in the past years.

A Cuban crocodile:

Photo credits: crocoworld.com 

As Whitaker also claimed in the post, "This is a critical breeding group of one of the most endangered animals in the world."