Most people have pets like dogs or cats, others looking for exotic birds, goldfish, and the most daring have big cats. In Coiba National Park, we love to be special and we adopted a wild American crocodile.
About Coiba National Park
Coiba Island is part of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape a crucial stretch of ocean for migratory marine species, like humpback whales and hammerhead sharks. Is an uninhabited place, with a crowd of very wild creatures, hence its unique beauty.
Unspoiled beaches on your own little private island will make for an unforgettable day. Get amazed by a pod of playful dolphins or watch a humpback whale breaching out of the water, very close to you.
But It was not always the tourist paradise that it is today, a long time ago the island was feared by convicted criminals who were sent there to serve their sentence or simply to disappear.
Since 1919 and for almost a century, most of the more than 3,000 inmates on the island were not locked behind the prison’s iron bars. So why weren’t they escaping?
The island’s impenetrable jungles, replete with deadly serpents and gigantic crocodiles, guarded the rivers’ mouths and the beaches, were natural deterrents to fleeing. If an escapee were to make it beyond the jungle, they’d have to then take on Coiba’s shark-laden waters and powerful currents. there was no hope of escape.
Coiba from Hell to Paradise
When the prison closed in 2004, every prisoner left the island, and the island becomes a natural sanctuary, Panama’s biggest national park and home of the last relics of tropical moist forest in Pacific Central America, also is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Coiba Island‘s wet jungle possesses a high variety of endemic birds, mammals, reptiles, and plants. Includes about 760 species of marine fishes, 33 species of sharks, more than 20 species of cetaceans, 36 terrestrial mammal species, about 147 de birds, and more than 40 amphibians and reptiles.
If you want to know some of the species that we have in the Coiba National Park, click here.
¿Who is Tito?
Today’s crocodiles remain wandering off alone on the Island, Tito is one of them.
Tito is the famous Coiba Island pet, is a resident American crocodile. Just imagine a cute pet like a big dinosaur who measures more than 3 meters and weighs about 200 kilos.
He’s been living on the island for more than 25 years that he’s almost harmless by now. He’s used to people and tourists and he’s quite friendly.
Tito has his own private beach, on the back of Gambute’s ranger station.
He is spoiled by the park rangers, who usually give him fish bones and chicken remains. When the rangers call him, he goes out to the beach, to receive his snack or take a photo with a daring tourist.
Seeing Tito always causes shock, surprise, and some fear, but that is not an impediment for everyone to want to see him.
In many cases, visitors can’t find him, because he often disappears for days, looking for food and visiting his wife who lives on another beach, whom we lovingly call her “Tita”. She is much younger than Tito, however, the females of this species are usually larger than males.
Many times, Tito comes back badly beaten, due to territorial fights or mating issues with other juvenile males. Tito has even been a victim of fishermen’s hooks, but he has the luxury of having a private doctor, the Doctor Crocodile biologist and crocodile specialist in Panama, who dedicates his life to the study, understanding, and protection of these gorgeous reptiles.
The good news is that she (Tita) also likes to be a top model, as Tito, and lets herself be photographed by anyone who dares to approach her. How close would you get to a girl with a beautiful smile?
Coiba’s biodiversity is a huge draw for both scientists and nature-loving travelers. There is no doubt that Tito is a celebrity in the park, taking a photo with him or her wife is priceless and will surely be one of your most precious memories of your visit to Coiba Island.
Tito’s Untold Story
Many people are don’t know that Tito wasn’t born in Coiba. He has captured almost a newborn on the banks of a river and taken to the community of Pixvae, where he remained as a family pet, of course, he spent a lot of time in a cage.
Possibly, when Tito was about two years old, neighbors alarmed by the animal’s growth complained to the authorities.
The Coiba’s park rangers were sent to rescue him, they transferred him to the Playa Gambute station, or 12 as it’s known, on Isla Coiba.
“The irony is that Tito found freedom and good friends inside the most feared prison in Panama”
By that time, Tito was about little more than 60 cm, he was placed under the bridge, the one that leads to the present public baths and cabins.
He immediately became the darling of everyone, the prison cook, Mr. Javier Castillo, seeing that he did not know how to get his food, fed him daily and was the one who gave him his name “Tito.”
Do you dare to swim with a crocodile?
When it was lunchtime, Javier called him by his name and he would show up to receive dinner.
Their relationship was so close that even swam together at the beach, and had fun frequently, like any puppy that you take for a day out.
When the fishermen approached the beach in their boats, Tito awaited them to greet them and as a reward, they would give him some fish.
One day the cook was transferred and Tito lost a great friend, piecemeal he moved away from the park ranger’s station.
After a few months, Javier Castillo returned to the park. When he saw that his friend was not there, Javier began to call him, but Tito would not show up.
Javier didn’t lose hope and called him daily, until one day Tito heard the call from his caretaker and returned to greet him.
To Javier’s surprise, Tito had grown up and gained his space in the park, since then Tito took over the beach behind the station, where he continued to be the center of attention of the place and received the care of his friends.
Movies turn them into terrifying and misunderstood beings, possibly their appearance doesn’t allow us to see that they are living beings, that they have feelings, and they can create bonds of affection with those who give them love, as dogs, horses, and many others.
“In Africa, the king of the jungle is the Lion; In Coiba Island, the king of the beach is Tito the crocodile”
Andis Batista
Special thanks to Francis Pérez y Andis Batista, for collaborating with us.
