Experts on Greek island believe long harsh winter did it for 6ft-long reptile that evaded capture, and was given Facebook page by admirers

Sifis, the crocodile that had become an overnight sensation outwitting all attempts at “arrest” on Crete, has been found dead eight months after the reptile’s mysterious appearance in an artificial lake on the resort island.

The 6ft long reptile was discovered belly-up on the banks of the lake, felled not by a hunter’s gun or trap laden with bait but a long harsh winter, according to officials.

“He was found in the water and must have been dead for at least 10 days,” said Petros Liberakis, a local herpetologist who had overseen the abortive operation to capture the crocodile. “This year’s heavy winter and the fact that we had so little sunshine were almost certainly the cause.”

'World's greatest crocodile hunter' fails to catch 'Sifis' – Crete's fugitive reptile Read more

Sifis – named by admirers who dedicated a Facebook page to an animal more usually associated with tropical climes – has been moved for examination to Crete’s natural history museum in Heraklion.

It was a sorry end for a reptile that had fascinated locals and foreigners alike.

Tourists and television crews from as far away as Japan had flocked to the Greek island in the hope of catching a glimpse of the fugitive, first spotted basking in the sun amid the reservoir’s foliage.

“In the end it was the cold that got him,” the director of Crete’s waterworks division, Vangelis Mamagakis, told the Guardian. “It’s sad, very sad. We never wanted this to happen, we wanted to move him out of the reservoir to a more suitable place but he just kept eluding us.”

On at least 10 different occasions, specialists attempted to capture the reptile, Mamagakis said. “The last time, in February, an entire team spent a week out there,” he said speaking from Rethymnon, the regional capital. “He was very happy in the lake, there was a lot for him to eat there.”

In September, Olivier Behra, a Frenchman reputed to be the world’s greatest living crocodile hunter, attempted to ensnare the animal. He got so far as to grab him before the crocodile managed to escape. An eco-system rich in biodiversity, including plants, birds, frogs and snakes, provided a sustenance that enabled the reptile to survive on the run, Mamagakis said.

“It is still our belief that he was abandoned by his original owner when he began to get too big,” added the Cretan official, admitting that even the animal’s gender remained unclear. “We called him Sifis because it is a Cretan name, and he just seemed so male, given there was nothing we could do to catch him.”