WATCH: Florida animal control wrangles 5-foot crocodile in suburb

From TMX

CORAL GABLES, Florida - An American crocodile was wrangled by trappers in a Florida neighborhood over the weekend, where alligators are far more common.

A video shared by Pesky Critters Wildlife Control shows owner Todd Hardwick and trapper Noah Dean wrangling a 5-foot crocodile outside a residence in Coral Gables, near Miami, on June 3.

“Local police secured the area so residents wouldn’t be harmed while the crocodile hid in the bushes in front of a residence,” Pesky Critters wrote alongside the video on Instagram. The trappers can be seen gaining control of the thrashing croc and taping its snout shut.

Unlike alligators, which are abundant, crocodiles are listed as a threatened species in Florida, and endangered everywhere else in the U.S., Pesky Critters said. As a result, the crocodile was safely released into southern Biscayne Bay.

Because healthy alligator populations exist in all available habitat in all of Florida’s 67 counties, nuisance alligators are generally not relocated to the wild, where their introduction can lead to territorial fights and death, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Nuisance alligators become the trapper’s property to sell for hide or meat, or to sell live to a zoo or farm.

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