A WOMAN who has been trying desperately to find her family’s pet crocodile is getting one step closer to discovering where it is.

Julia Gillick, from Brighton, decided her New Year’s resolution was to find her second cousin’s reptile.

Ralph and Julia Hopper used to own a menagerie of exotic animals in Devon back in the 1960s.

But when they decided to move house, Donald the crocodile had to be transferred to Exmouth Zoo.

Since throwing herself into the investigation, Julia has learned her family’s pet was transferred to a zoo in Brighton after Exmouth zoo closed down.

With the help of Brighton’s Sealife Centre, Julia found out that Donald could be in Tenerife where she now has people on the case.

She said: “Since launching #FindDonald I have tracked down this photo (pictured right) of Donald the crocodile as a baby with Ralph.

“My mum’s cousin’s daughter had come across the photo of Donald as a whipper snapper last summer when she’d been making a display of pictures of Ralph for his funeral.

“It would have been taken in the 1960s, before Donald left them to move to Exmouth Zoo.”