{"id":14349,"date":"2025-10-21T18:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T18:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/14349\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T18:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T18:56:11","slug":"florida-crocodile-recovering-after-spear-in-its-head-removed-zoo-miami-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/14349\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida crocodile recovering after spear in its head removed, Zoo Miami says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An American crocodile that was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/news\/florida-crocodile-spear-head-key-largo-fwc-photos\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">discovered with a spear stuck in the back of its head <\/a>this past weekend is now recovering after having it removed, Zoo Miami announced Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p>The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) said officers were first notified about the wounded reptile around 11:45 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18. <\/p>\n<p>The about 8-foot American crocodile was found by officers near mile marker 101 in Key Largo, and wildlife professionals from Zoo Miami were called to help capture the reptile for treatment. <\/p>\n<p>Once it was captured, the crocodile was transported to Zoo Miami, where head veterinarian, Dr. Gwen Myers, removed the spear from its skull on Tuesday morning. <\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/croc-recovery.jpg#.jpeg\" alt=\"croc-recovery.jpg \" height=\"413\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  The about 8-foot American crocodile was found by officers near mile marker 101 in Key Largo.<\/p>\n<p>                Zoo Miami<\/p>\n<p>The zoo said the crocodile also has a bullet between the eyes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The crocodile has been given fluids, antibiotics and pain medication, according to the zoo, and is resting away from the public. <\/p>\n<p>Zoo Miami said the hope is to return the crocodile to the wild once it has made progress in recovery. <\/p>\n<p>FWC investigation underway <\/p>\n<p>The American crocodile is listed as a federally threatened species by the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fws.gov\/species\/american-crocodile-crocodylus-acutus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service<\/a>. It is illegal to kill or harass American crocodiles under state and federal law. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The FWC has launched an investigation into the incident, and is asking anyone with photos, videos or information about the incident to call the Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Reports can be made anonymously, and tips that lead to an arrest or citation may qualify for a reward of up to $1,000, according to the agency. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An American crocodile that was discovered with a spear stuck in the back of its head this past&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6742,11741,28,123,125,124,11740],"class_list":{"0":"post-14349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-animal-rescue","9":"tag-crocodile","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-headlines","13":"tag-miami-news","14":"tag-zoo-miami"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14349","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=14349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}