Gone crocodile hunting on the Nile

The Egyptian media is abuzz over a rare reptile sighting in Cairo. Our reporter joins the chase.

from the August 7, 2007 edition

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One is six feet long. Scratch that, 18 feet.

"It turned over a faluka [boat]... It was there by that bridge," states Mohammed Omar confidently, pointing to the nearby University Bridge.

But Ahmed Mustpha, a security guard at the floating restaurant closest to University Bridge, denies any crocodilian sightings or attacks.

"So many people were worrying about this crocodile. Even the restaurant owner was afraid," says Emad Mohamed, who works in the kitchen at the Happy Dolphin restaurant on the island. He says patrons didn't stop coming, but he noticed them edging their chairs away from the water. "Yes, we were nervous, but now it's OK."

Word is, the crocodile – or alligator – has swum downstream to the northern Cairo neighborhood of Maadi.

The Nile is not a natural habitat for alligators. They are native to the US and China. Gator snouts are wider and rounder than a crocodile's, with a top jaw that hides the bottom teeth. They are, according to the Crocodile Biology Database online, less tolerant of saltwater.

Be it alligator or crocodile, how did it end up in Cairo?

"It's a bit unknown with most crocodilians what makes them move. They do tend to be somewhat lazy animals and use the current to move them around" when they aren't hunting, Mr. Manolis says.

Some Cairenes suspect the crocodilian somehow slipped through the High Dam that created Lake Nasser near the border with Sudan.

Wrong, say others. It escaped from the Pharaonic Village – a touristy Plimoth Plantation type of recreation of ancient Egyptian life – in central Cairo. But employees there say the Pharaonic Village doesn't carry animals.

Wrong again, say still others. A man with a pet baby alligator was riding in a boat and dropped it into the Nile by accident but didn't tell anyone.

Whatever its origin, Ahmed Hussein is sure he knows where to find it. "I work next to the crocodile!" he says excitedly sitting on a brick wall on Minyel Island. "There is an island across from where I work [as a guard at the Pharaonic Village] and everyone says the crocodile is living there."

While his job is to provide security, he has no intention of tangling with the reptile. "No, it's not my job to kill it! I'll run!" he says, laughing.

As I chase this story, as elusive as my jagged-tooth phantom, one Nile river cop tells me the creature has already been caught, near Maadi.

But his boss, the unnamed officer, says no, it's still on the loose.

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