Residents of a small town in south western Poland found themselves on red alert last week after rumors swept Świebodzice that a crocodile had been spotted prowling the streets. The palaver began after a photo was posted on social media showing a baby croc basking on a pavement and quickly spread from there. With locals threatening to mobilize to form civic patrols, police swooped in to discover that the escaped tetrapod was, in actual fact, a toy left out on the street as a prank.

Closer to home, mystery continues to surround the story of a six-meter python slithering around the riverbanks of Warsaw. First spotted in July, police sources have since asserted that the snake was released into the wild by the family of its deceased owner.