A 10.5-foot-long crocodile weighing almost 350 pounds has undergone successful surgery two months after it ate a tourist’s shoe.
The problem started when Anuket, who lives at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in St. Augustine, Florida, ate a shoe that fell off a tourist’s foot while they were ziplining over the enclosure in December 2020 where Anuket and another crocodile named Sobek live.
According to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park, weeks passed after the 341-pound crocodile swallowed the shoe and the decision was made to make an attempt to flush the show from the crocodile’s stomach.
Scientists at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine were called in to help with zoo medicine resident Garrett Fraess initially attempting to remove the shoe by reaching his arm up and through the crocodile’s esophagus, the university said in a statement on social media.
“All of these measures were taken to avoid major abdominal surgery,” the zoological park explained.
But nothing the park or the university did to remove the shoe worked. Anuket needed surgery.
The initial plan during the surgery was to have Dr. Adam Biedrzycki, a large animal surgeon, attempt to manipulate the shoe through an incision and push it from the stomach to the esophagus, where Fraess hoped to be able to grab hold of the shoe to pull it out.
St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park said that “Anuket is recovering well back at our zoo in an off-display area, but her full recovery will take some time before she will be able to rejoin Sobek in the Oasis.”
”Don’t eat falling shoes!”
