Update: A crocodile that has been cursed with a tire around its neck since 2016 is finally free, thanks to a 34-year-old Indonesian man named Tili. He used chicken bait and nylon ropes to wrangle the animal on Monday with the help of dozens of locals who helped cut the tire and return the animal to the water. The Guardian reports it took Tili three weeks to tracki and capture the animal, which it describes as 17 feet long, and which Tili says he was driven to help because "I hate seeing animals trapped and suffering." The paper notes the reward offered in 2020 was revoked over fears it could end in the animal getting harmed, but the local conservation agency says Tili will be rewarded.
Got a death wish? Head to Indonesia, where officials are looking for a person willing to free a 13-foot crocodile from the tire wrapped around its neck. The croc was first spotted, wearing the motorcycle tire like a necklace, in the Palu River of Central Sulawesi in 2016, reports CNN. The province's Natural Resources Conservation Office stepped up in 2018, after a so-called "animal whisperer" failed to remove the tire, but the croc apparently wasn't keen on the chicken used as bait by the conservation office, per Antara News.
With few officials available to handle the beast and mounting fears that the growing croc will be strangled—the Telegraph cites a video showing it "gasping for air"—the conservation chief announced this week that "a reward will be given to anyone who can release the hapless reptile." Hasmuni Hasmar noted the undisclosed sum would come out of his own pocket. Those serious about the task should have experience in wildlife rescue, he added. "We're asking the general public not to get close." (A croc in Australia consumed what might be an orthopaedic plate.)
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