A female crocodile in Indonesia managed to get a motorcycle tire stuck around her neck. The reptile was first reported in 2016, and has since been sighted and photographed many times near the city of Palu. She was named buaya kalung ban, which translates to "crocodile with a tire necklace." If the croc grew to a certain size with the tire still attached, she could be strangled. But who wants to approach a crocodile to remove her necklace?
To be honest, many people have tried -and failed. Conservation officials even offered a reward. Crocodile wranglers from Australia and the US tried to free the croc. One such attempt was featured on the Discovery show Impossible Croc Rescue.
Then in January, a local animal wrangler named Tili built a homemade trap and hunted buaya kalung ban for three weeks. Twice he found her and failed to capture the croc, but on the third encounter, he was able to restrain the crocodile. A group of men banded together to saw the tire off her neck.
“I didn’t learn this anywhere,” Tili tells Reuters. “I just can't stand to see animals hurt.”
Read an account of the rescue at Smithsonian, with pictures.