March 28th, Tanjung Tokong

Construction has now reached a point immediately adjacent to the wader roost site, and the level of disturbance is now so high that I suspect the waders are now only using the site as a feeding are at low tide.

The most noticeable thing as I arrived today was not the sights, but the smell! There was a powerful stench pervading the air, and eventually I stumbled across its source... the decomposing carcase of a six-foot long crocodile!



Fairly gruesome stuff - sorry! But at least photographs don't smell!



A croc expert from the local university had the carcase removed to obtain the skeleton. He thought it most likely that the animal came from the Crocodile Farm on Langkawi Island, which is about 2 hours by ferry from here. Whether it arrived in Penang waters alive or dead is open to question, but it's a sobering thought that we were floundering around in water up to our middle catching shorebirds at night about a month ago!