Athens 2004 Olympics organizers have issued an eviction order to oust a three-meter (ten-foot) long crocodile from his aquarium in southern Athens in order to start construction of the sailing center.

The thick-skinned snapper, named Cosmas after the Aghios Cosmas suburban area where he has been kept since coming to Greece as a 30-centimeter youngster in the early 1980s, risks being left homeless when his present residence is torn down.

“We have given the Public Works Ministry several alternatives for a new (aquarium) site but we want Cosmas to stay with us,” local mayor Alexandros Aloukos told Reuters yesterday.

Aloukos said his municipality wanted to build a new aquarium for the crocodile but it was not clear when this would be possible. The crocodile was brought to Greece by a collector of exotic reptiles who later donated his collection to the municipality of Alimos, the site of the Olympic sailing center. (Reuters)