Crocodile recruit assigned rugby duties

Personnel from the Linton-based company will attend a ceremony at the National Aquarium in Napier on Tuesday to adopt their new mascot.

"We've got a charter being drawn up," spokesman Paul Stein said. "It says that he can lead parades – but that is extremely unlikely."

The charter will also say that Izzy can attend sporting fixtures. Mr Stein said a crocodile on his team's try-line could act as a useful deterrent to the opposition.

The first major assignment for the company in its present form was in 1999, organising transport in East Timor, where crocodiles were considered sacred. "Adopting the crocodile as the mascot has symbolism for them," Mr Stein said.

Aquarium staff called the crocodile Izzy because they had a saying: "Is 'e going to bite or is 'e not?"

Exhibits team leader Kerry Hewitt said Izzy had arrived at the aquarium in 1990, at the age of two.

"We don't know whether it's a he or a she," he said. "You can't tell from the externals – it needs an internal examination and no one has volunteered to do that."

At more than three metres long, Izzy weighs 120 to 140 kilogrammes.

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