We got to the enclosure that the saltwaters were in and it was fantastic to see how close we could actually get to them and it was then that you realised exactly how big they could grow to. We felt as if we were within touching distance of them. In this enclosure there was around 40-50 crocs and the zookeepers were standing around the edge. The crocs sensed that it was feeding time as some of them started to emerge out of the water, the hungry ones were already at the gate with their jaws wide open. It was here that we seen how well a crocodile can camouflage as we had tried to pick out crocs in the water and some of them looked just like logs before they started to swim to the embankment. As they started to throw bits of chicken in for the crocs it was amazing to hear the sounds of their jaws snapping shut and we learned that crocodiles have the most powerful bite in the animal kingdom. However it is weird to hear that they have very little muscles to open their jaw and this is why you will see them tied up with just a little peice of rope.
Another thing that we noticed was that the crocs seem to have tunnell vision and appeared to be blind from side on. This was because the keepers would throw a bit of chicken and if they missed it first time and it went past their head they couldn't locate it. One croc in particular, right in front of us, made about 5 attempts to find the chicken by tossing its head to each side and ending up with a mouthful of dirt each time before another croc sneaked up behind him and stole it. Now we know what to do if we see a croc - just run to its side and hope another one doesn't sneak up behind us!!
After the saltwaters were fed it was time to move to the next enclosure where it was the freshwater crocs turn. Freshwater crocs are much smaller and look a little different to their saltwater counterparts. They also have the ability to move very quickly as they can lift their bodies off the ground to run on all four legs. Thankfully for us they can only do this over a short period of time. As they are smaller these crocs cannot kill you, but they will still give you a nasty bite if youget in their way. The zookeeper was able to get in the actual enclosure with these crocs due to this. However this show was not as good as freshwaters rarely eat in the winter time and none of them would take the bait. It was still good to get a look at them and see a few try to take the zookeepers toes off though.
Within the park they also have a large man-made swamp that took them 8 years to build. Here they give you a boat ride around it which allowed us to get even closer to the crocs in their own natural environment. Here they demonstrated other characteristics of a crocodile by feeding them differently. What they did was to attach a chicken onto a pole and get the crocodiles to display how they can jump out of the water to get prey that may be flying above or sitting on a low branch. It was amazing to watch as these crocodiles jumped out of the water a good few metres to get their meal.
After the boat ride we went on a tour of an actual crocodile farm. To be honest, neither of us had put much thought into the actual name of the place and we were therefore surprised to learn that they actually breed crocodiles here to sell for their meat and skin, the lucky ones are selected as future breeders! They do this as they were nearly hunted to extinction in the wild not so long ago and have therefore been named as a protected species. This has allowed the wild population to increase steadily again and there is no need to hunt them in the wild anymore. Here they informed us that they actually get to play God at the farm as a crocodiles gender is determined by the temperature of the egg. When they keep the incubator at 32C it more or less guarantees a male crocodile to be born. If it is above or below it is more likely that a female will be born. Males are the preferred choice as it is easy to keep the incubator at the one level and they also grow much bigger and faster than females. We were taken around some of the pens where it was bizzare to see loads of small crocs all piled up on top of each other knowing that they were all just growing to be killed for their skin and meat. We also got to touch a small croc that was strangely soft both underneath and on top.
The farm also keeps some of Australias most venomous snakes and we went to see a snake show. Here the keeper brought out a python and a couple of the most deadly snakes for us to see. He explained some facts about snakes and where abouts they are found. Gemma was terrified when she found out that 10 out of Australias 11 most deadly snakes live in the Queensland region where we were, and where we would be spending a large amount of time! The snake show was interesting as we found out what to do in the event of a snake bite. Naturally you would assume that if you were bitten the first thing that you should do is to scrub the wound and try and remove the poison. However we were told that this is the wrong thing to do. What you should do is wrap the wound up very tightly to avoid the spread of the poison throughout your body. Snakes are very messy biters and leave a lot of poison around the wound. This is the only way that a hospital will be able to test what type of snake has bitten you as you cannot rely on colours. Snakes are the only animal in the world that for the exact same species can have a different colour depending where abouts you are located.
After the snake show it was time to watch a crocodile attack show. This show was with a huge saltwater crocodile called Bart. Bart gets his name from the dog that he ate one New Years day (most of the crocodiles are named after the person that they attacked here). Bart was around 3.5m long and the zookeeper was able to get in the enclosure with him. The whole point of this show was to illustrate a crocodiles natural instincts. This zookeeper had been working with Bart for 20 years and he was still unable to train him so all the reactions were perfectly natural. Some of the skills he demonstrated were the death roll and how a crocodile will attack prey at the waters edge. The zookeeper did this by going in the water ankle deep and when he stamped his foot or splashed Bart would pounce out the water with his massive jaws opened. Then he went on to perform a death roll by attaching a piece of chicken to a rope and throwing it into the water. Bart then locked his jaw around the chicken and proceeded to roll both left and right which is how he would kill his prey in the wild but in this case it was already a dead chicken.
One of the funny stories from the day was the crocodile who was missing half of his jaw. This came about through a combination of an absess and a fall out with his Mrs. Apparently the two crocs had a disagreement and she proceeded to bite half of his bottom jaw off! The two crocs are still kept in the same enclosure together but funnily enough they were at opposite ends.
Near the end of the day we walked up to the beginning of the park again and came across Paul, who is the biggest crocodile in the farm at a massive 4.5m long. It turns out that this was the crocodile that Gemma thought was fake at the start. This crocodile was huge and their was only a small chain fence between the two of us. we couldn't believe how close we could get to this massive crocodile.
Throughout the park they also have some other native animals such as koalas, kangaroos and koookaburras which were also pretty cool to see.
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