While more than 150 yachts and their crews wait patiently on the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal to get through to the Pacific, work continues on the canal’s expansion programme.

As part of the Panama Canal Authority’s (ACP) efforts to protect wildlife as the work progresses, wildlife experts are out and about coralling animals to prevent them getting chewed up in earth moving machinery.

More than 263 animals have been rescued, examined and relocated to protected areas near the canal.

During the execution of the first two dry excavation contracts for the Pacific locks access channel, the ACP has surveyed more than 356 hectares for endangered wildlife and recovered several species of mammals and reptiles. This week, canal personnel rescued a female crocodile and released it in Gatun Lake where a population of the same species is already established.

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