14 DAY TRIAL // On Tuesday, Florida authorities announced that they were at that point attempting to use magnets as a means of keeping crocodiles away from major cities. The technique was reportedly successfully used in the past to relocate about two dozen reptiles to a new home. It acts by disrupting the “homing” ability that the crocodiles have to always return to their former habitats. If it turns out to work, the cost-effective method could be used in any area of the world where such creatures are a threat to humans.
These animals are incredibly territorial, this being one of the main reasons why they attack others when entering their habitat. Normally, crocodiles are oblivious to humans, but when they feel threatened, they attack relentlessly, until the “threat” is eliminated. Also, they have a keen sense that allows them to return to their former habitats if they are relocated. That is to say, if one is captured in the sewers of a city, and then relocated 50 miles away, it is due to return to the sewers, traveling as much as 10 miles in a single day.
It's this behavior that the researchers at Mexico's Crocodile Museum in Chiapas are currently trying to disrupt, based on previous results they got with the method. “We said, 'Hey, we might as well give this a try,'” crocodile response coordinator Lindsey Hord, who is working for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said yesterday. She added that the reptiles used, most likely, Earth's magnetic field to navigate their surroundings and to always find their way back.
That's why magnets could prove to be the best answer to the dilemma of relocating them. If magnets are attached to both sides of the animals' heads, then they disrupt the beasts' power to return to the place whence they were taken. “They're just taped on temporarily. We just put the magnets on when they're captured, and since they don't know where we take them, they're lost. The hope would be that they stay where we take them to,” Hord explained.
“These crocodiles are unique and valuable creatures and we feel like we have a responsibility to live with these animals as much as we can,” the scientist pointed out, saying that the Florida Keys was the only place in the continental US where crocodiles could still be found. Once severely endangered, their population now counts approximately 2,000 individuals, and scientists are pleased with the numbers.