Which of your pets has been the most dangerous? Whatever it is, it’s no match for a five-meter-long, 500-kilogram crocodile!
However, this is the pet that Gilberto, a Costa Rican, ended up with. For more than 20 years, he swam in the river with Pocho, a huge, scary-looking crocodile.
Pocho was discovered dead on the banks of the nearby Reventazón River in 1989 by Shedden, a fisherman, tour guide and squirre naturalist, Limón province, Costa Rica. He realized that the crocodile had been shot in the head through the left eye upon closer inspection (as it turns out, by a local rancher, enraged by the animal preying on his herd of cows).
Shedden returned home with the crocodile in his boat. She made the decision to nurse him back to health.
He fed the crocodile 30 kg (66 lb) of fish and chicken every week for six months, and even slept with it in his house at night. She also gave him kisses and cuddles while she chatted with him and touched him to encourage him to eat by simulating chewing food with his lips. Shedden later commented that feeding the crocodile would not have been enough to help it recover, and that “the crocodile needed my love to restore the will to live.”
Pocho was the name he gave the crocodile. Shedden had to obtain the necessary wildlife licenses from Costa Rican authorities in order to legally own and breed Pocho. He kept the crocodile in a hidden pond with a heavy canopy of trees deep in a neighboring forest until that happened.
Shedden released Pocho into a neighboring river when his health recovered, with the intention of reintroducing him to the wild. However, the next morning, the man discovered that the crocodile had followed him to his house and was resting on his balcony.
Pocho was allowed to stay in the shed. The alligator, along with Shedden’s second wife and daughter, resided in the lake outside his home ever since and was considered a member of his family. (His first wife had left him because he spent too much time with the crocodile.)
Shedden swam with the crocodile in the river outside his house for more than two decades, mostly at night, talking and playing with Pocho while hugging, kissing and petting him. reyelo. He even got the reptile to respond when his name was called.
Shedden and Pocho performed a weekly routine for visitors from around the world in a 100 m2 (1,100 square foot) artificial lake at Finca Las Tilapías in Siquirres, Costa Rica, for more than a decade. South African filmmaker Roger Horrocks captured the couple shortly before Pocho’s death in the documentary video ‘The Man Who Swims with Crocodiles’. He theorized that the gunshot wound to Pocho’s skull had damaged the crocodile’s brain, causing the crocodile’s instinctive behavior to change. The filmmaker thought Shedden’s life was at risk every time he entered the water with the crocodile, citing cases of humans being attacked by their pet reptiles even after a decade or more of intimate ownership.
“After two or three years, anything can happen, maybe…” Shedden said. But nothing has happened in 23 years of loving each other, so I don’t believe it.”
No, they were simply too close to each other for something like that to happen. Consider this: when Pocho entered the water, one of his actions was to lunge at Shedden with his jaws open. Before getting too close to him, the crocodile closed its lips and kissed him on the snout instead. It is the ideal connection
On October 12, 2011, Pocho died of natural causes in the water near Shedden’s home in Siquirres. The crocodile was given a public funeral, attended by friends and fans. As she held the crocodile’s “hand,” she sang to him. Pocho’s taxidermied remains are permanently displayed in the Siquirres municipal museum behind glass.
Shedden is now working with Pocho, a new crocodile. The man had seen the crocodile several times in the river near his house while he was fishing and had fed it, while the animal allowed him to pet it. However, because the conditions are not the same as Shedden’s bond with the original Pocho, the chances of long-term success are slim.
