Truth behind the 'crocodile invasion' of beach in Brazil
Topics: World News
Rhiannon Ingle
Featured Image Credit: @kenradio/Twitter
Topics: World News
It's clear that, sometimes, the internet can get a little carried away with its imagination and it was no different for this 'crocodile invasion'.
With heaps of speculation popping up all over social media – the theories have since been put to rest about the alleged reptile raid.
The video in question that has recently surfaced shows a whole flock of reptiles gathering at a waterfront in Brazil.
News of the alleged 'crocodile invasion' was spread by a whole host of people including American radio presenter and talk show host Ken Rutkowski, and has since shocked and panicked people online.
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Taking to Twitter, Rutkowski posted a video of a beach bank covered head-to-toe with crocodiles, captioning the tweet: "In Brazil, an invasion of crocodiles that have flooded one of the beaches with several hundred, even thousands, and the local population is panicking."
However, the talk show host didn't seem to get it completely right.
The so-called 'invasion' did not actually take place on a tourist trap hotspot like Ipanema or Copacabana beach but, instead, happened on the Pantanal Wetlands of Brazil.
A Canadian zoologist, who goes by the handle Dr. Wildlife on Twitter, has since cleared things up with a thread of tweets.
"Hi. Zoologist here. I am so tired. This is not an invasion, locals are not panicking.
"This 'beach' is part of the Pantanal aka the largest tropical wetland, as well as perhaps the most pristine, in the world.
"Oh, and, these are not crocodiles – they are Yacare caiman.
The zoologist concluded the tweet saying: "If you're talking about them online, RESEARCH YOUR FACTS AND CONTENT."
The video, which was only posted yesterday (15 September), has spread like wildfire and has since received more than 6.2 million views, 129.2k likes and 18.5k retweets.
Thousands rushed to react to the alleged 'invasion of crocodiles', with many people, like Dr Wildlife, being quick to fact-check the legitimacy of video's caption.
One Twitter user commented: "Those are not crocs and that’s no beach. It’s a river bank. Crocs don’t dwell in the ocean."
A second, also quick to realise the mischaracterisation, chimed in with: "They are called caimans, that is a river, and yes, animals live in the wild."
"This is their natural environment, there is no invasion," a third added.
According to the Word Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Pantanal region 'has the largest concentration of crocodiles in the world, with approximately 10 million caimans.'
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