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SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews/16 July)—“Lolong,” the world’s biggest saltwater crocodile that died in captivity last February, is scheduled for exhumation on Thursday at the Bunawan Eco Park in Bunawan town in Agusan del Sur.
Welinda Asis-Elorde, media affairs coordinator of the Bunawan municipal government, said the skeletal remains of Lolong would be brought to the National Museum in Manila where they would be assembled.
MindaNews tried to get some other details on Lolong’s exhumation from Bunawan Mayor Edwin Elorde but he was not answering phone calls and text messages as of 4 p.m. Tuesday.
“Lolong” was captured on September 3, 2011 and died on February 10, 2013 at his cage at the Bunawan Eco Park.
The crocodile measures 20 feet long and three inches wide.
Lolong was officially certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the “world’s biggest crocodile in captivity” last year.
Lolong died of pneumonia and cardiac arrest, according to the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
When Lolong was still alive, officials and residents in Bunawan opposed the reptile’s transfer to Manila, as proposed by the DENR.
Lolong made the town of Bunawan land in the country’s tourism map. (Roel Catoto/MindaNews)