In the village of Luganga in Uganda, villagers were once disturbed by a crocodile. It was so powerful and ferocious that everyone thought they could never kill it. According to the British "Daily Star" reported on July 16, this beast with the name of "Osama" ate 80 villagers in 14 years, and became a lingering "nightmare" for all villagers, until it was arrested.
Osama lives on Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake, which is 16 feet long and weighs up to 1 ton. And it's called "Osama" because it's very aggressive and doesn't let anyone go. Prior to that, because of its size and popularity, people also called it "John Major". All in all, Osama's presence has always frightened the villagers, and the village of Luganga has never been quiet.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that between 1991 and 2005, Osama ate a tenth of Luganga's population, including young and old, not even children. It is reported that this beast is very cunning, it often guards the lake, and when the prey appears, it will quietly swim under the boat, then overturn the boat, and finally drag the prey into the water.
At one point, villagers noticed some torn clothes floating on the lake and learned that a father of two had been eaten by Osama. And when the children take buckets and fetch water by the lake, Osama will take them away unexpectedly. On one occasion, it even jumped into a wooden boat before abducting its victims, an extremely rare act for crocodiles.
Paul Kyewalyanga, a local villager, told the Daily Telegraph that one day he and his brother Peter went fishing in the lake, and he was rowing at the stern of the boat, and Peter was fishing at the bow of the boat.
Suddenly, Osama got up and rushed out of the water, then threw himself on the boat, causing the stern to enter the water. Paul desperately cried out for help, while the crocodile grabbed Peter's leg and pulled hard. Peter clutched the bow of the ship and screamed in pain.
After about five minutes, Peter was unable to struggle any longer, and he was torn off by Osama's leg and dragged into the water. A few days later, the villagers found Peter's head and arms in the lake.
Since then, this shadow has hung over the entire village, and children have been forbidden to play on the shore. But the villagers make a living from fishing, so some people have to take risks. John Mangene, a 64-year-old villager, reluctantly said that all they could do to make a living was pray, and many times he would wake up in the middle of the night and kneel on the ground to pray for good luck.
However, although 15 people escaped from Osama's mouth, they were also maimed. On March 7, 2005, the "nightmare" in the village of Luganga finally came to an end. 50 local men squatted on the shores of Lake Victoria for 7 days and 7 nights, hooking the cow's lungs with hooks to lure Osama ashore, and finally succeeded in catching the beast.
However, instead of killing Osama, authorities loaded it in a truck and transported it to a crocodile farm in Bouama, The Masaka region. Alex Mutamba, owner of the Uganda Crocodile Company, said in an interview with local media that "all Nile crocodiles like Osama do not hesitate to eat each other once they find out that someone has violated their territory." But the crocodiles on our farm are safe, so I'm not too worried. ”
Alex's farm is reportedly home to nearly 5,000 crocodiles, and it's also a tourist attraction for tourists to visit. In addition, some crocodiles are fattened and used to make exquisite crocodile leather handbags and sold to places such as Italy and South Korea.
Osama, now 76, is no exception. Alex revealed that he had hoped that Osama would be able to reproduce and help the farm raise hundreds or even thousands of giant crocodiles, but it would not escape the fate of being slaughtered for the rest of his life.
Image source: Daily Star, Bing