{"id":13316,"date":"2025-10-21T02:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T02:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/13316\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T02:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T02:25:10","slug":"crocodile-number-40-returns-to-brevard-from-florida-keys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/13316\/","title":{"rendered":"Crocodile &#8216;Number 40&#8217; returns to Brevard from Florida Keys"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>INDIAN HARBOR BEACH, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A rare wildlife sighting has residents in Indian Harbor Beach talking. An American crocodile turned up once again in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indianharbourbeach.org\/Facilities\/Facility\/Details\/Gleason-Park-5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Gleason Park<\/a>, a popular area where many locals jog and walk their pets.<\/p>\n<p>What You Need To Know<\/p>\n<p>American crocodiles are rarely seen this far north in Florida<br \/>\n<br \/>The same crocodile was previously tagged in the Keys and relocated back in 2022<br \/>\n<br \/>It returned this month to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indianharbourbeach.org\/Facilities\/Facility\/Details\/Gleason-Park-5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Gleason Park<\/a>, drawing crowds and curiosity<br \/>\n<br \/>Experts believe it may try to come back again<\/p>\n<p>The crocodile, known to wildlife officials as \u201cNumber 40,\u201d was first tagged in the Florida Keys as a hatchling and had been previously relocated from the same park back in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>This year, it made its way all the way back, astonishing both experts and visitors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was a crowd of about a dozen people right here,\u201d said photographer Ryan Clapper, who came out to snap photos. \u201cRight below us was a pretty big crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Clapper, who has lived in Florida most of his life, said he had never seen a crocodile in the wild before.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been shooting for 25 years\u2026 so I\u2019d never seen one in the wild,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Experts say the crocodile likely came from the nearby Indian River Lagoon, crossing residential areas and roadways to return to Gleason Park.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/myfwc.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission<\/a>\u2018s Matt Nichols, who helps oversee its alligator management program, said it\u2019s unusual for crocodiles to venture this far north.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is the only one in that area. And it\u2019s the northern extent of the range, which [for] the U.S. and Florida is pretty rare,\u201d Nichols said.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the unusual appearance, experts say this species is not aggressive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn American crocodile is Crocodylus acutes,\u201d said Savannah Boan, international ambassador at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gatorland.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gatorland<\/a>. \u201cThey are not a very aggressive crocodile. They\u2019re very shy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>FWC officials have now relocated Number 40 to an undisclosed location for its own safety.<\/p>\n<p>But Boan says it may not be the last time we see him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it finds a place that it likes, it\u2019s always going to go back to that same place,\u201d Boan said.<\/p>\n<p>FWC says there are about 2,000 crocodiles, excluding hatchlings, living in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>As crocodile populations grow, wildlife officials say it\u2019s possible to see more exploring new areas \u2014 though sightings this far north remain rare.<\/p>\n<p>FWC urges anyone who spots a crocodile over 4 feet long in a residential area, park, school, or other populated place to call the state\u2019s nuisance hotline at 1-866-FWC-GATOR.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIAN HARBOR BEACH, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A rare wildlife sighting has residents in Indian Harbor Beach talking. An American crocodile&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[274,315,28,30,29,115,139,11881,278,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-13316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-app-top-stories","9":"tag-brevard-county","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-orlando","15":"tag-randy-rauch","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}