TAIPEI, Taiwan(AP) A zoo worker had his forearm reattached Thursday after his colleagues recovered the severed limb from the mouth of a 440-pound Nile crocodile, an official said.

The crocodile severed Chang Po-yu's forearm on Wednesday at the Shaoshan Zoo in the southern city of Kaohsiung when the veterinarian tried to retrieve a tranquilizer dart from the reptile's hide, zoo officials said.

The Liberty Times newspaper said Chang failed to notice the crocodile was not fully anesthetized when he stuck his arm through an iron rail to medicate it.

As Chang was rushed to the hospital on Wednesday, a zoo worker shot two bullets at the crocodile's neck to retrieve the forearm, said Chen Po-tsun, a zoo official.

"The crocodile was unharmed as we didn't find any bullet holes on its hide," Chen said. "It probably was shocked and opened its mouth to let go of the limb."

From: AP news feed
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There are graphic pictures of the Croc with the arm in his mouth but not able to copy them. Dang!

sh** happens when you keep extremely large carnivores as pets.

The pics did not bother me, but they might bother some. The pics are at Linkinn. For some reason I cant get links to that site to work. ( like the one I tried for the Egg mosaic) Just click on " More hot pictures" ( its written in red) then find "Crocodile severs zoo worker's arm" in the list.

Geez ... thats horrible...hope the poor guy has a full recovery.

DAAAMN, that would suck.

link to pictures: http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/sc/041207crocodilearm

It looks like a picture from a movie or something. croc is just chillin with a forearm in his mouth. Can't even imagine how that must have felt!! Don't really want to either...

....

ghawd damn that would suck.