Young croc found in Sydney backyard

An 18-inch-long freshwater crocodile found in a suburban Sydney back yard has a new home at the Australian Reptile Park, wildlife officials said. Joanne Wenban, a rescue driver for the Wildlife Information and Rescue Service, said the juvenile was "very dehydrated" when a teenager discovered it under a trash can Tuesday night, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The crocodile, found hundreds of miles from the habitat of Australia's crocodiles, is believed to be an escaped pet kept illegally, Wenban said. "He wouldn't have traveled that far given his small size," Wenban said. "It would have been somewhere reasonably locally that he would have escaped from." Liz Vella, senior curator at the reptile center, said the crocodile, nicknamed Chainsaw, is now living in a tub of water with a lamp for warmth. It is being fed scraps of food suitable to his size, including crickets and bits of fish. She said Chainsaw will probably be transferred to a zoo or another center.