Pocho (crocodile)

Pocho (around 1950-1960 in Reventazón River, Costa Rica – October 12, 2011 in Siquirres, Costa Rica) was an American crocodile who became world famous for his relationship with Gilberto "Chito" Shedden, a local area fisherman. Shedden had found Pocho dying on the banks of the Reventazón River, and took the crocodile in, nursing him back to health. The crocodile refused to return to the wild and chose to stay with Chito instead. The pair became famous after they began performing together.

Shedden, a fisherman, tour guide, and naturalist from Siquirres, Limón Province, Costa Rica, discovered a dying male crocodile in 1989, weighing only a skinny 70 kilograms (150 pounds) on the banks of the Reventazón River, close to death. Upon closer examination, Shedden discovered the crocodile, shot in the head through the left eye, was alone and helpless. The crocodile had been shot by a local cattle farmer while preying on a herd of cows. Shedden took the crocodile home in his boat. For six months, Shedden fed the crocodile chicken, fish and medicine, sleeping with it at night in his home. Shedden also simulated the chewing of food with his mouth to encourage the crocodile to eat, and gave it kisses and hugs while talking to it and petting it. "Food wasn't enough. The crocodile needed my love to regain the will to live," noted Shedden. He hid the crocodile in an obscured pond under trees deep in a nearby forest until he obtained the necessary wildlife permits from Costa Rican authorities to own and raise the gravely injured crocodile legally.

After the crocodile, named 'Pocho', improved to normal health, Shedden released it to a nearby river to return to its normal life. The next morning, Shedden awoke to find that the crocodile had followed him home and was sleeping on his veranda. Living in the water outside Shedden's home, the crocodile, who made a 'decision' and preferred to spend the rest of his life in Siquirres with the man who saved his life, became a member of Shedden's family, along with his second wife and daughter. Shedden's first wife had left him because he was spending too much time with the crocodile. "Once the crocodile followed me home, and came to me whenever I called its name, I knew it could be trained," noted Shedden. "Another wife I could get. Pocho was one in a million."

For more than twenty years, Shedden swam with Pocho the crocodile in the river outside his home, mostly at night, talking and playing with Pocho while hugging, kissing and caressing him. Pocho the crocodile would always come to Shedden when his name 'Pocho' was called.

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Wikipedia