Giant Crocodile: Crocodile Experts are in Hunt for More Giant Crocodiles

Giant crocodile has a mate and it could be the one creating problems. And there could be a clan!

The giant crocodile that was captured alive in Agusan del Sur on Sunday is believed to have eaten a carabao and a fisherman.

An expert told GMA’s “24 Oras” that the destruction of their natural habitats force these reptiles to attack human beings.

And the scary thing is that, the giant male saltwater crocodile that is now in captivity could possible have an even larger mate, a female giant crocodile which is out in the wild!

Earlier this year, several crocodile attacks were reported not just in Agusan del Sur where the giant crocodile was caught but also in Palawan. The main reason for such attacks is that people have built settlements along damaging the reptiles’ natural habitat.

In an interview by 24 Oras, Davao Crocodile Farm Senior Naturalist Ver Pedo said these giant crocodiles have no choice but to eat humans who invaded their territories.

“‘Pag naubusan po ng pagkain sa wild, sa kanilang natural habitat mismo, wala po silang choice kundi ang available po na pagkain – ‘yung mga nakatirang mga tao po doon,” he said.

The 6.4 meter giant crocodile which was caught in Barangay Nueva Era in Bunawan, Agusan del Sur, was being suspected of having attacked several people but local officials believe that he’s not alone. Villagers and crocodile farm hunters are on their hunt for a possibly larger one.

“There is a bigger one, and it could be the one creating problems,” wildlife official Ronnie Sumiller told The Associated Press

“The villagers were saying 10 percent of their fear was gone because of the first capture,” Sumiller said. “But there is still the other 90 percent to take care of.”

The effort to capture the giant crocodile has intensified after several residents have reportedly gone missing for months now. There were also reports from some residents witnessing the crocodile preying on their water buffaloes (carabaos).

It took about 100 men to pull the huge saltwater male crocodile from the creek and according to the Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center, it was the largest crocodile caught in the Philippines to date. It also trumps in size the largest captive crocodile in Guinness World Records, which measures 18 feet.

But this record could be shattered shortly as its female counterpart is believed to be larger and could easily become the biggest crocodile in the world.

UPDATE: During a DZMM interview this morning, September 7, Bunawan Mayor Edwin Cox Elorde confirmed the presence of a second giant crocodile with anchor Ted Failon.

He said crocodile experts partnered with local residents in setting up traps for other giant crocodiles that could be lurking somewhere in the area.

The Mayor also confirmed the plan of setting up a theme park for visiting tourists that will highlight the giant crocodile(s). He added that they are now coordinating with the local crocodile farm staff for some knowledge on how to feed and maintain these giant crocodiles.

Images courtesy of Associated Press

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Giant Crocodile – Photo and Video of 21-Foot Crocodile Captured Alive in Agusan del Sur

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Giant Crocodile Found in the Philippines is Biggest Captive Crocodile in the World

A giant crocodile captured in Agusan del Sur in the Philippines last Saturday, September 2, is believed to be the biggest captive crocodile to date.

The said Philippine adult male crocodile, measuring 21 ft or 6.4 meters long, was captured alive along a creek by crocodile farm staff and residents in Bunawan in Agusan del Sur. It we are to check the records, the Philippine crocodile is the biggest so far.

Giant Crocodile captured in Agusan del Sur, Philippines
Photo Credit: Associated Press

Two larger certifiable records of the biggest crocodiles in the world are both of 6.2 metres (20 ft) adult crocodiles. The first crocodile was shot in the Mary River in the Northern Territory of Australia in 1974 by poachers and measured by wildlife rangers.

The second crocodile was killed in 1983 in the Fly River, Papua New Guinea. In the case of the second crocodile it was actually the skin that was measured by zoologist Jerome Montague, and as skins are known to underestimate the size of the actual animal, it is possible this crocodile was at least another 10 cm longer.

The largest crocodile ever held in captivity, on the other hand, is an Estuarine–Siamese hybrid named Yai (meaning “big” in Thai) which was born on June 10,1972, at the famous Samutprakarn Crocodile Farm and Zoo in Thailand. This animal measures 6 m (19.69 ft) (19 ft 8 in) in length and weighs 1114.27 kg.

The largest captive crocodile alive in the US is located in South Carolina. In June 2002, Alligator Adventure introduced Utan, born in 1964 in Thailand. At 20 feet (6.1 m) long and weighing in at more than a ton, “Utan”, the largest crocodile to ever be exhibited in the United States resides in Myrtle Beach.

The records are set to be changed as the giant crocodile which was captured in Agusan del Sur over the weekend has a measurement of 6.4 meters, by far the biggest if it becomes official.

Captured alive, the giant crocodile weighs around 2,370 pounds or 1,075 kilograms.

According to the town Mayor Edwin Cox Elorde it took almost 100 people to place the reptile in a fenced cage. The mayor also said that they are planning to build an eco-tourism park for species found in a vast marshland in Agusan (an impoverished region about 515 miles southeast of Manila) featuring the giant crocodile which is about to become the biggest captive crocodile in the world.

The giant crocodile was first seen by local farm villagers killing a water buffalo (carabao) last month and was also suspected of having attacked a fisherman who went missing in July, according to reports.

After they spotted the giant reptile, villagers and members of the crocodile farm staff set four traps, which the giant crocodile destroyed. They then used sturdier traps using steel cables, one of which finally caught the giant crocodile late Saturday.

Video courtesy of popis191 from YouTube

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Giant Crocodile Captured in the Philippines (Photo and Video)

A giant crocodile that measures around 21 feet or 6.4 meters long was captured along a creek by crocodile farm staff and residents in Bunawan, Agusan del Sur province in the Philippines on Saturday, September 2.

Giant Crocodile captured in Agusan del Sur, Philippines
Photo Credit: Associated Press

Captured alive, the giant crocodile weighs around 2,370 pounds or 1,075 kilograms.

According to the town Mayor Edwin Cox Elorde it took almost 100 people to place the reptile in a fenced cage. The mayor also said that they are planning to build an eco-tourism park for species found in a vast marshland in Agusan (an impoverished region about 515 miles southeast of Manila) featuring the giant crocodile.

The giant crocodile was first seen by local farm villagers killing a water buffalo (carabao) last month and was also suspected of having attacked a fisherman who went missing in July, according to reports.

After they spotted the giant reptile, villagers and members of the crocodile farm staff set four traps, which the giant crocodile destroyed. They then used sturdier traps using steel cables, one of which finally caught the giant crocodile late Saturday.

Video courtesy of popis191 from YouTube

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Giant crocodile captured in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Villagers and veteran hunters have captured a one-ton saltwater crocodile which they plan to make the star of a planned ecotourism park in a southern Philippine town, an official said Monday.

Mayor Edwin Cox Elorde said dozens of villagers and experts ensnared the 21-foot male crocodile along a creek in Bunawan township in Agusan del Sur province after a three-week hunt. It could be one of the largest crocodiles to be captured alive in recent years, he said, quoting local crocodile experts.

Elorde said the crocodile killed a water buffalo in an attack witnessed by villagers last month and was also suspected of having attacked a fisherman who went missing in July.

Reptile destroyed four traps
He said he sought the help of experts at a crocodile farm in western Palawan province.

"We were nervous but it's our duty to deal with a threat to the villagers," Elorde told The Associated Press by telephone. "When I finally stood before it, I couldn't believe my eyes."

After initial sightings at a creek, the hunters set four traps, which the crocodile destroyed. They then used sturdier traps using steel cables, one of which finally caught the enormous reptile late Saturday, he said.

About 100 people had to pull the crocodile, which weighs about 2,370 pounds, from the creek to a clearing where a crane lifted it into a truck, he said.

Locals hope crocodile will be 'biggest star'
The crocodile was placed in a fenced cage in an area where the town plans to build an ecotourism park for species found in a vast marshland in Agusan, an impoverished region about 515 miles southeast of Manila, Elorde said.

"It will be the biggest star of the park," Elorde said, adding that villagers were happy that they would be able to turn the dangerous crocodile "from a threat into an asset."

Despite the catch, villagers remain wary because several crocodiles still roam the outskirts of the farming town of about 37,000 people.

They have been told to avoid venturing into marshy areas alone at night, Elorde said.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Banking giant plans to cut 25,000 more jobs

LONDON — HSBC will axe 30,000 jobs as it slashes costs and retreats from countries such as Russia, Poland and the U.S., where it is struggling to compete, Europe's biggest bank said after reporting a surprise rise in first-half profit.

HSBC's shares rose as much as 5 percent as first-half pretax profits of $11.5 billion were up 3 percent on a year ago, beating the $10.9 billion average in a Reuters poll.

The London-based bank said it had cut 5,000 jobs after restructuring operations in Latin America, the United States, Britain, France and the Middle East and that it would cut another 25,000 between now and the end of 2013.

That equates to 10 percent of HSBC's 296,000 workforce. The bank's 110,000 staff in Europe and North America will bear the brunt of the job cuts.

"It's a big number, but it makes sense because HSBC's costs are fairly high," Daniel Tabbush, analyst at CLSA in Bangkok, said of the staff cuts. "Hopefully these cuts help make an impact in helping lower the bank's cost-to-income ratio."

Britain's Unite trade union slammed the "brutal restructuring" despite strong profits for the bank.

New CEO Stuart Gulliver wants to slash annual costs by up to $3.5 billion, sell assets and retreat from countries where HSBC is sub-scale. The revamp, aimed at sharpening its focus on Asia, reverses a strategy that has been criticised for "planting flags" around the world.

But he said first-half results showed the recovery will be a slog, as tougher regulations bite hard on all banks.

"We're not celebrating here at all. This illustrates to us what a long journey this is and how tough it will be. That's unfortunately one of the reasons we have to make these job cuts," Gulliver told reporters on a call from Hong Kong

Costs rose 13 percent in the first-half from a year ago as staff numbers rose and wages increased in Asia, where banks are battling to hire and retain staff. Costs as a share of revenues were 57.5 percent. Gulliver wants to get them below 52 percent.

HSBC said many of the job cuts would come through natural attrition, as its turnover is 10-15 percent a year. It also expects to add 3,000 to 5,000 jobs a year in emerging markets, and it added jobs in Asia, Brazil and Mexico in the first half.

HSBC said on Sunday it would sell 195 U.S. branches to First Niagara Financial for about $1 billion in cash , and close another 13 of the 470 sites it had.

HSBC also intends to sell its U.S. credit card portfolio, which has more than $30 billion in assets, a move which would free up capital. Capital One Financial Corp and Wells Fargo are among the bidders, sources have said. Another suitor could be Barclays .

"We still have a number of people interested in that business. If we can't get the price we're looking for we have a number of options -- we can run it off, sell it in pieces, we could decide to keep the retail private label cards," Gulliver told reporters.

The geographical spread of HSBC's retail banking retreat will be less radical than outlined three months ago, however.

The bank now aims to shut or sell retail operations in a further 20 countries. In May, it had earmarked leaving 39 countries but has so far only closed in Russia and Poland.

HSBC is the first of Britain's big banks to report this week. Rivals are also cutting jobs and shaking up business models as the euro zone debt crisis has hit fixed income trading revenues hard and tougher regulations are hurting returns.

HSBC's return on equity improved to 12.3 percent in the first half, up from 9.5 percent in 2010 and within the 12-15 percent range Gulliver is targeting. But he said that first-half level would have equated to about 10.5 percent under new Basel III rules.

The bank warned increased regulation could hinder a global economic recovery that is already losing momentum, as governments grapple with sovereign debt crises and try to plug holes in their budgets.

Potentially radical changes for UK banks, due out next month which might force a ring-fencing of domestic retail banking, could cause more job cuts, HSBC warned. But it did not expect this to force HSBC to move its headquarters away from London.

By midday Londong time HSBC shares were up 4.5 percent.

HSBC's strong profits were driven by higher than expected revenues and a big improvement in bad debts, which fell 30 percent from a year ago to $5.3 billion, the lowest half-year level for five years.

That improvement drove a 131 percent rise in profits for retail banking and wealth management and aided a 31 percent profit rise at is commercial banking division.

Earnings at its investment bank arm, global banking and markets, fell 12 percent on the year. Like rivals, HSBC was hit by a drop in credit and rates income, especially in Europe.

"They're reasonably reassuring numbers but they're still pointing towards concerns about the global economy," said Colin McLean, managing director of SVM Asset Management, which owns HSBC stock.

Gulliver said revenues were growing strongly in the markets he is targeting, but showing muted growth in Europe and falling in the United States where its consumer finance arm is being run down.

"We're pretty confident China will manage a soft landing and we're confident the overheating that appears in pockets of the property market, especially here in Hong Kong, will be ably dealt with by the authorities," he said.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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Inside China's secretive tech giant

25 July 2011 Last updated at 23:18 GMT By Nick Mackie Shenzhen, China WATCH: Nick Mackie gets a rare look inside Huawei Technologies in Shenzhen, China

It's one of the world's leading - and somewhat inscrutable - technology companies.

Its telecom systems connect a third of the world's mobile phones. And globally, it employs 110,000 staff - more than Cisco or Microsoft.

The company is Huawei - born and bred in Shenzhen, southern China. And it epitomises today's power of Asia.

"It's a very young company, it's less than 20 years old," explains Ross Gan, global head of Huawei Technologies' corporate communications.

"Our workforce is also very young - the average age is 29 - so there's a very dynamic environment within the company."

This is certainly the impression one gets at the sprawling headquarters campus in Shenzhen's Longgang district, where 40,000 employees work.

Here, the company houses key research-and-development units, global testing facilities, and an executive training centre. But the enthusiasm on show isn't all down to the youth factor.

Huawei's workforce is young, with an average age of just 29 years old

Huawei is owned totally by its employees - with around 60% of its staff holding non-tradable shares that are allocated according to position and performance.

Rural roots

In its early days, Huawei had to fight its corner for a share of China's mobile telecoms market.

Back then, the main orders for the lucrative urban network systems went to either state-owned companies or foreign firms. So Huawei, instead, focused on the challenging countryside.

"Huawei actually cut its teeth in the rural markets where the conditions were such that we had to design very specialised and customised equipment in order to meet our customers' needs," says Ross Gan.

This included developing infrastructure that could withstand variable power supplies, lightning and attacks by rats.

As the company grew and expanded into foreign markets, it made a name for itself as a problem solver - listening to its potential customers' needs or problems and designing solutions.

Huawei's Ross Gan says the company cut its teeth on rural markets

Huawei is now the world's second-largest supplier of mobile telecom equipment, after Ericsson, serving 45 of the top 50 telecoms operators. It also boasts 55% of the global market share in 3G dongles.

Engineering cream

Revenues in 2010 topped $28bn, and the company predicts an aggressive expansion over the next 10 years to $100bn.

The main driver is its workers - of which 46% are engaged in research and development (R&D). The company has applied for more than 49,000 patents.

Huawei attracts the cream of China's engineers - postgraduates like Zhong Jianwei, project manager at the company's technical compliance unit.

He discovered that working here is very different from most large Chinese companies with their typical rigid, statist, chains of command.

"Every day, I need to communicate with Huawei staff all over the world. It's international here - global," remarks Zhong Jianwei.

"I've never experienced this before."

To achieve its growth targets, Huawei wants new experiences.

It's not going to drop its core business - providing the systems for mobile operators in 140 countries - but it is developing two new strategic pillars.

Zhong Jianwei is a project manager in Huawei's technical compliance unit

"A lot of it is driven by the larger forces of convergence," says Ross Gan.

"There are other customer segments out there - such as the enterprise market and increasingly the device markets."

Enterprise is about developing technology that helps make companies, even cities, more efficient and even more secure.

At the Shenzhen headquarters, it's clear that huge efforts are going into video conferencing - from standard desktop or mobile use to the kind of systems used by large corporations and governments. The goal is to create near face-to face communication.

The design team is now working on reducing today's distracting seams between the multi-screens.

"Within the next one-to-two years, we will, step-by-step, go from a narrow gap to no gap, to even 3D, " enthuses Luo Shan, software development engineer.

"Now we're working on the technology. We want to deliver a trusted high-level experience."

Enterprise has moved the company into the IT sector. It plans to be a big player in providing solutions for tech convergence.

Huawei has also set its sights on the cloud - from creating the basic hardware to developing the software and applications.

The company is moving aggressively into consumer electronics

It's also marketing the cloud in a box - kitting out standard shipping containers as fully functional data centres which can then be dropped off ready for use.

Gadgets and gizmos

For large operations, customers need only prepare a shell of a building that can house multiple containers.

Huawei is making an aggressive push into the consumer market - video on demand, phones, 4G network cards - albeit delivering in much smaller boxes.

This year, it expects to ship 60m cellphones - from entry level to smart.

Much of the manufacturing is outsourced - including to Foxconn which has its huge Shenzhen manufacturing complex close by.

Huawei mainly supplies, wholesale, to the likes of mobile operators - though this strategy is changing.

After two decades of being in the crucial, but "boring", end of the mobile revolution - and largely unknown among the world's public at large - it's now seriously into brand building.

The company is rolling out tablets and smart phones and establishing new marketing channels.

Taking a leaf out of Apple's book, the company plans to develop a network of retail stores, in China and overseas.

Security concerns The company has an image problem, however, among US lawmakers - who accuse it of maintaining links with China's military.

Citing national security concerns, they've vetoed two Huawei purchases of US technology firms.

Huawei has long rejected such concerns - stressing it is an employee-owned company that welcomes a serious discussion with its detractors in order to put the accusations to rest.

"There is no link between Huawei and the military," stresses Ross Gan.

"The reality about Huawei is that it is a private company, wholly owned by its employees, who are its shareholders - and the company operates on a commercial basis and nothing more."

That said, the company hasn't made life easy for itself. It lifted a cloak of secrecy over its board membership only in April 2011.

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Giant space scope reaches orbit

19 July 2011 Last updated at 14:03 GMT By Katia Moskvitch Technology reporter, BBC News RadioAstron's antenna is 10m in diameter RadioAstron, a Russian radio telescope intended to be the biggest radio telescope in space, has started touring the Earth for the first time.

Once operational, the 3.8 tonne "space eye" could help focus in on many remote places of the Universe.

The device will travel in an elliptical orbit that at its furthest reaches almost as far as the Moon.

Carried by a Zenith-3M rocket, it blasted off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome on Monday.

The telescope is part of a Russian space observatory called Spectrum-R.

Despite RadioAstron's antenna being only 10m across - far smaller than the antennas of many other radio telescopes on Earth - its signals are meant to be combined with those on the ground, effectively making it the biggest radio telescope in space.

Continue reading the main story

On the fifth day [after the launch] the telescope's mirror will open, and in the three following months we will prepare the observatory for practical work,”

End Quote Viktor Khartov Lavochkin R&D No rivals Shortly after the observatory reached its designated orbit, it successfully opened its solar panels, said Viktor Khartov, head of Lavochkin R&D that built the device.

He said that it would take the craft eight days and seven hours to circle the Earth.

"On the fifth day [after the launch] the telescope's mirror will open, and in the three following months we will prepare the observatory for practical work," he added.

Although RadioAstron is expected to deliver more precise data than the US space veteran Hubble, the Russian Federal space agency Roscosmos said the apparatus was not meant to replace it.

"Hubble is an optical telescope and RadioAstron is radio," Aleksei Kuznetsov, Roscosmos' spokesperson, told BBC News. "I would say that the two will complement each other."

Once RadioAstron's 27 carbon fibre petals open up to form a dish, the telescope will start to collect data, then combine it with observations captured by radio telescopes on Earth.

This technique of combining images from a network of telescopes to form a single image is called interferometry.

The result is expected to have an incredibly high resolution - as if taken by a telescope with a dish as wide as the maximum distance between the antennas - from the Earth to the Moon.

One of the telescope's primary goals is to zoom in to the neighbouring galaxy M-87, some 59 million light years from Earth.

The telescope was delivered into orbit by a rocket that launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome

Scientists believe that there is a black hole there, and RadioAstron's mission is to confirm this hypothesis.

Researchers are also after some detailed data about pulsars, interstellar plasma and neutron stars in the Milky Way.

Soviet legacy

The Soviets first started building the telescope back in the 1980s, but the project was shelved when the USSR collapsed in 1991.

"In the 1990s, financial hurdles prevented us from completing the observatory, but in recent years Russia has come back to it," said Mr Kuznetsov.

"The launch of Spectrum-R is one of the main aspects of Roscosmos' space programme."

According to Roscosmos, the observatory is expected to remain in operation for at least five years.

Later in 2011, Russia also plans to go forward with its Phobos-Grunt mission, which involves sending a craft to Phobos, one of Mars' moons, to explore its surface.

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