The Laguna del Carpintero is an unusual place by any standard. It sits at the heart of Tampico, a major tourist destination in the state of Tamaulipas, and it is ringed by a park, a fairground, a theatre, a convention center, sports facilities, schools, and a semi-conserved natural area. It is also home to a population of swamp crocodiles, Crocodylus moreletii, that has been monitored since 2004 and that previous research has described as ecologically stable and functional. The crocodiles are, in fact, the lagoon’s primary tourist attraction: the municipality runs guided trips on outboard motorboats and trams so visitors can watch the animals swim or bask in their natural habitat. The city has effectively built its identity around a large predator living inside its boundaries.

That arrangement carries obvious risks. Non-fatal human-crocodile encounters recorded in Tamaulipas cluster strikingly in Tampico, which accounts for 25 percent of such incidents statewide, and the Laguna del Carpintero accounts for 100 percent of the non-fatal occurrences within the municipality. Urban expansion around wetlands isolates crocodile populations and intensifies direct competition for space, water, and food, a pattern documented across the species’ range. In response, the municipality launched an interdisciplinary project in 2020 whose centerpiece was the formation of a first response team drawing on federal, state, and municipal government agencies, crocodile management specialists, medical professionals, and first aid personnel. The group operates under the Protocol for Attention to Human-Crocodile Contingencies, known as PACH-C, a document developed by Mexican specialists that classifies interactions into five types and prescribes recommended courses of action for each.

The June 8 incident began, as such events often do, with a 911 call. At 21:00 hours, a caller reported that a person had been bitten by a crocodile near the lagoon, at coordinates 22°13.776’N, 97°50.883’W. An alert was promptly disseminated to members of the SOS Crocodile Tampico working group, who were instructed to initiate the PACH-C protocol. Municipal firefighters, state guardsmen, Mexican Red Cross paramedics, and the group’s coordinator proceeded to the site to verify the report. They found an adult male who had crawled approximately 102 meters from the point of the attack. Red Cross paramedics provided pre-hospital care at the scene, and the victim was transferred to the Tampico General Hospital Dr. Carlos Canseco, where the emergency team was already waiting.

That waiting team is a deliberate design feature of the system, and it may be the case study’s most transferable finding. The first response group actively communicates with hospital personnel during the transfer, relaying the initial report and photographs of the wounds. This allows the emergency department to form a pre-diagnosis and prepare the necessary material, area, and staff before the victim arrives, reducing the elapsed time between incident and definitive hospital care. Once the victim was admitted, the incident was classified as Grade 4, non-fatal, under the PACH-C criteria, and an incident order was initiated outlining the strategies and activities recommended for that degree of interaction.

Locating the exact site of the attack relied on forensic traces at the scene: blood and footwear belonging to the victim, along with the presence of an adult crocodile in the vicinity that exhibited peculiar behavior, emerging from the water when it perceived the searchers. The site was classified as an open rainwater drainage channel with closed vegetation along most of its length, situated between the municipal sports facility and the fairgrounds, adjacent to a dirt road routinely used by residents commuting to and from work. During the survey, the team observed a second, smaller crocodile 42 meters from the site of the interaction, identified as a nesting female. The researchers noted that the nest had been manipulated on May 23, 2024, to translocate the eggs, and the nest was destroyed for safety reasons, but the female had constructed a new nest without eggs.

Capturing the crocodile responsible proved to be a two-hour operation. The animal retreated into a subterranean cave, a characteristic habitat of the species, and the team used poles fitted with a PVC tube and a plastic-lined stainless-steel snare placed around the crocodile’s neck, without chemical restraints. The captured animal was transported to the Tampico City Fire Department facilities, where morphometric data were collected: sex determined by direct examination of the cloacal cavity, and total length measured with a tape measure from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail. The crocodile was identified as a male Crocodylus moreletii measuring 278 centimeters. It was handed over to the federal environmental authority PROFEPA, which placed it in permanent captivity to prevent further incidents.

The victim’s account, gathered in a follow-up interview once he was stabilized, adds a technical dimension to the discussion of why the attack occurred. The 54-year-old man stated that he was not intoxicated or under the influence of any illicit substance, that he was a regular visitor to the area, and that he was watching a soccer game when he decided to walk to the edge of the canal to urinate. The crocodile seized him by the left leg above the knee, inflicting a substantial injury, and during his attempt to defend himself he suffered a minor injury to his right hand. The medical report from the emergency department documented a 15-centimeter avulsive wound with irregular edges in the quadriceps femoris, with exposure of muscle tissue and fracture of the left femur. He underwent surgical lavage and trauma surgery with external fixators and muscle reconstruction, was hospitalized for three days, and was discharged for home recovery until removal of the external fixator, after which he was referred for physiotherapy.

The timing and location of the attack align with what crocodile biology would predict. While the majority of negative interactions are recorded during daytime hours, this case occurred at night, which could have prevented the individual from observing the crocodile’s presence. Yet the victim stated during his interview that he was aware crocodiles lived in the area and had observed them basking in the channel on multiple occasions. The researchers suggest that male crocodiles are frequently found at close distances, less than 50 meters, from nests, and that like nesting females they remain vigilant at a distance from the nesting area. The interaction occurred 42 meters from a nest, and it coincided with the species’ reproductive season, which runs from April to September and during which the greatest number of interactions are observed, a pattern consistent with national and worldwide statistics.

Beyond the immediate response, the SOS Crocodile Tampico working group pursues a preventive portfolio that includes signage along the entire periphery and canals of the lagoon, radio and television campaigns to promote a cultural shift toward incident prevention, construction of a perimeter fence around the lagoon, training courses on crocodile management, routine surveillance of the lagoon’s periphery, and environmental education programs for students and tour operators emphasizing the crocodiles and their importance. The team also conducts annual monitoring of the crocodilian population and collaborates with researchers on studies of environmental pollution and crocodilian health. The researchers argue that inter-institutional coordination between federal, state, municipal, and health authorities, integrated with crocodile specialists as a single working group, is fundamental to attending rapidly and efficiently to interactions with crocodiles in urban areas. Despite the animal’s dangerous reputation, the Morelet’s crocodile evokes fascination among the public, and the group’s work extends beyond victim care to fostering awareness of coexistence with a reptile that plays a fundamental role in maintaining the ecological balance of the wetlands it inhabits.

Subject of Research: A non-fatal human-crocodile interaction at Laguna del Carpintero, Tampico, Mexico, and the coordinated emergency response to it.

Article Title: Details of a non-fatal human-crocodile interaction in the Laguna del Carpintero, Tampico, Mexico

Article References: Cedillo-Leal, C. N., Barrios-Quiroz, G., & Padilla-Paz, S. E. (2025). Details of a non-fatal human-crocodile interaction in the Laguna del Carpintero, Tampico, Mexico. Neotropical Biology and Conservation, 20(2), 115-123. https://doi.org/10.3897/neotropical.20.e142405

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/neotropical.20.e142405

Keywords: crocodiles, wildlife, Mexico, human-wildlife conflict, conservation, Details, non-fatal, human-crocodile, interaction, Laguna, Carpintero, Tampico