Crocodile-severed arm is reattached

A zoo worker had his forearm reattached after his colleagues recovered the severed limb from the mouth of a Nile crocodile.

The crocodile severed Chang Po-yu’s forearm at the Shou Shan Zoo in Kaohsiung when the veterinarian tried to retrieve a tranquilizer dart from the reptile’s hide, zoo officials said.

The 17-year-old reptile is one of a pair of Nile crocodiles kept by the zoo. Officials said the zoo got the reptile from an area resident, who had kept it as a pet.

The crocodile is listed as an endangered species and is rapidly disappearing from its native African habitat.