It is not uncommon nowadays to see people with some rather unusual or exotic pets. We have all heard stories about people keeping lions, tigers, bears, monkeys, and other rare animals as pets.
However, rarely has anyone ever been able to keep a crocodile as a pet. That is until the world learned the story of Gilberto “Chito” Shedden and his pet crocodile, Pocho.
But how could this man break barriers that scientists had once thought impossible?
The Discovery
Before Chito met Pocho, he made a living as a fisherman in rural eastern Costa Rica. One day, while fishing on the Reventazón River near his hometown of Siquirres, he was having a normal day on the water until something caught his eye.
There, on the banks of the river, was a small crocodile. As Chito got close to it, he could see that something was wrong.
As Chito would later find out, a local cattle farmer had shot the crocodile in the eye as it was trying to attack his livestock.
Barely escaping with its life, the crocodile had managed to make it back to the river where, weak from hunger and being on the brink of death, it would have surely died if left alone.
Because Chito had been in tune with nature his whole life, he knew he had to act. Not knowing if he could handle the animal by himself, he returned to his town and got several friends to help him load the crocodile into a boat.
Once home, Chito knew the animal would need some serious health care. At just 150 pounds, the crocodile was severely malnourished for being at least thirty years old. However, Chito was up for the challenge.
Nursing Pocho Back To Health
At first, the crocodile did not want to eat anything. However, Chito did not let the animal’s stubbornness get in the way of its recovery. In order to get the crocodile to eat, Chito would even chew fish and chicken meat in his mouth so that the animal did not have to expend as much energy.
Over time, the crocodile began to get bigger and stronger as Chito fed it over 30 pounds of fish and chicken per week. In addition, Chito fed the animal medicines to keep his gunshot wound from becoming infected.
However, the food and medicine are likely not what healed the crocodile the most.
According to Chito, he began to form an intense bond with the animal by talking to it during this time. Even though the crocodile could not understand Spanish, it did understand tone and intentions very well.
Because of this, Chito believes it was his love that he gave that healed the animal’s heart and gave it the will to live again.
But not everyone was happy about Chito’s newfound friend.
A Bond Is Formed
Within a few months of Chito taking in the crocodile, some nosy neighbors who found out were not too keen on having the massive animal near their homes.
They reported Chito to the authorities, who notified him he could not have the crocodile without proper permits. With police threatening to take the crocodile away, Chito hid him in a secluded pond near his home.
Here at this pond, the relationship between Chito and the crocodile he had now named Pocho, local slang for a good-looking guy, really began to take shape.
Oftentimes, Chito would tell his wife he was going out drinking with his friends. However, he was going tothe pond to spend time with Pocho.
When he would return home, she would question him about where he had been since his clothes were wet. However, he would shrug her off by stating he had been drunk and fell in the pond.
Soon enough, Chito’s trips to spend time with Pocho began to be longer and longer. It was not uncommon for Chito to spend days or weeks by Pocho’s side.
At night, he would sleep in a large tree by the pond that was also home to a huge colony of bats. For this, Chito earned one of his nicknames, “Tarzan”.
Over the next few years, Pocho grew, eventually reaching nearly 1,000 pounds and 16 feet in length. Once Pocho had gotten this big, Chito decided to let him back into the wild. But Pocho had other plans.
The first time Chito released him back into the wild, he awoke to find Pocho on his front porch the next morning. Though Chito tried several other times to release him, Pocho kept returning home.
It was then that Chito decided that this would be his life now and took Pocho in to be his full-time caretaker.
After promising to ensure frequent checkups by a veterinarian, Chito’s permit to keep Pocho was granted, and he moved him back home. Although his first wife left him due to how much time he was spending with Pocho, he did not care.
