21-foot crocodile tops Time list

Manila: A 21-foot long crocodile caught on Sunday in Southern Philippines' Agusan del Sur, leads the list of the "Top 10 Real Life Monsters" by Time magazine as part of a special presentation.

Lolong, as the reptile is called in recognition of the late hunter who had earlier been hired to capture it, Ernesto "Lolong" Conate, joined the ranks of huge, odd, deadly and scary creatures such as a 45-foot long squid, the world's largest spider, man-killing jellyfishes, vampire bats as well as the Loch Ness Monster.

"It the kind of beast Steven Spielberg might feature in a movie," an introduction to a short descriptive of an article written by Time writer Nate Rawlings said on Thursday.

The 1,077-kilogramme reptile had been the object of a hunt led by Conate.

Suffering from exhaustion and lacking sleep after tracking the monster for two months, Conate succumbed to stroke two days before the crocodile was ensnared in a trap using twisted metal cables at a swamp in Agusan del Sur's Bunawan town. It took nearly 100 people to haul the monster from a creek, and then a crane to lift it into a truck.

It was suspected to have eaten a child two years ago," Rawlins said in his article.

Residents threw a feast to celebrate the capture of the huge reptile. But there were reports that a crocodile even bigger than Lolong had been seen prowling the swamps of Bunawan.

Wildlife sanctuary

"So perhaps they shouldn't celebrate too quickly. And don't forget Spielberg's classic film Jaws in which the residents of a town terrorised by a great white shark rejoice when one of the creatures is killed, only to learn a harsh lesson later — the real culprit was still out in the water. We hope the real life story has a better ending," the Time article said.

The area where the crocodile has been enclosed in in the Banawan Marsh is a wildlife sanctuary.

According the Agusan Marsh website, the sanctuary is one of "most ecologically significant wetlands in the Philippines".