Darwin - Crocodylus Park

Today we went to Crocodylus Park. It is a crocodile research and educational center.

We hopped on Bus 5 to get there. It dropped us off 15 minutes away and it wasn't obvious how to get to the park entrance. We ended up walking across a field and getting attacked by an angry, swooping white bird. I have never seen a bird behave so aggressively. We figured she must have had a nest nearby she was trying to protect. She kept returning for more diving and fly-by action. We had to duck each time she passed overhead. After crossing a busy highway, we finally found the entrance to the park. It is obviously not designed for those without cars. Apparently, there are a few buses that take you to the entrance, but they only go 3x a day. Oh well - the park was definitely worth it in the end.

We wandered around the museum while we waited for our tour to start. We had a Crocodile Dundee-style guide, complete with the hat and everything. We started at the female croc lagoon. He attached pieces of raw chicken to a line that dangled over the lagoon so that we could see the crocs jump for the meat. He assured us that this is a natural crocodile behaviour.

Next, we moved to the breeding area. As we looked down into the first pool, we saw an enormous male croc looking up at us. He knew it was feeding time. They capture problem crocs from the Northern Territory (and the big ones hanging about in Darwin harbour) and bring them to this research center for the breeding program. He hung a fishing line out to feed the huge breeding males and slightly smaller females. He even let Stephen have a go at feeding them. The sound their jaw makes as it snaps shut is really scary. The pressure of a crocs jaws on its prey is equivalent to a huge winnebago flying through the air and landing on you (our guides explanation was something like that...).

They have small crocs that are bred and allowed to live in the park until they are four years old and then they sell the skins to French crocodile purse makers. This gives local landowners the incentive to allow crocodiles to live on their property and breed (otherwise they would probably be killed). They are paid for the croc eggs that the park collects from their land.

At the end of the informative tour, the guide let us each hold a baby croc. Their jaws were taped shut and they were chosen because they were docile. Croc skin feels a lot like snake skin. They were so calm in our hands. I certainly wouldn't fancy trying to catch a bigger one. Especially after we watched them all when they were fed chicken heads after the tour. I will download some video when I have a better connection. It was really scary to watch them go after the meat. We also saw kangaroos, big cats, iguanas and monkeys, but the crocodile tour was the highlight of the day. It was so incredible to watch the huge breeding crocs eat.

They have one really old famous croc called Eric. He was captured after he was spotted stalking fishermen and bumping fishing boats. They think he may have been responsible for one croc fatality. Now he is so old he has lost his teeth (they grow back until the crocs are 60 years old) so he is not so threatening anymore, but he is still enormous!