Fire crews pull 10-foot, 440-pound crocodile from storm drain near gas station

A crocodile in a storm drain is not something most people expect to see on a Sunday morning, but that was the scene in Banting, Malaysia over the weekend.

What happened?

The Star reported that the alert came in at around 9:07 a.m. on Sunday, June 14, after a crocodile was seen in a storm drain in Banting. 

The assistant director of the Selangor Fire and Rescue Department, Ahmad Mukhlis Mukhtar, told the outlet, "We deployed eight firemen to the scene and efforts to capture the crocodile are underway."

Footage of the animal, shared by The Star, shows it slowly moving down the drain with little room on either side of it.

A reporter stated in the video that the crocodile weighed an estimated 200 kilograms (440 pounds) and took nearly an hour to rescue. Once the firemen began working, the animal flailed around to avoid capture. 

Luckily, no one was injured in the process. The crocodile has now been transferred to the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) to be safely released back into the wild.

Wildlife experts posit that the animal may have come from Sungai Langat River before entering the storm drain. It isn't clear exactly how the crocodile ended up in the drain. 

Situations like this can become more likely as development expands near wetlands, rivers, and other natural ecosystems. 

Roads, concrete drains, and commercial areas can push animals into unfamiliar spaces, creating risks for both people and wildlife. A crocodile trapped in stormwater infrastructure can also become stressed, injured, or more likely to lash out if approached.

While crocodiles face an onslaught of threats, there are still plenty of teams and people willing to protect these animals. Over in the Philippines, Indigenous peoples there are working to save the critically endangered Philippine crocodile. And the Siamese crocodile is making a comeback in Cambodia.

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