One of the more unique adventures was the visit to the next door neighbor’s crocodile farm. It was incredible, but also incredibly disturbing. My whole body was screaming get out of there. It is just not natural to be surrounded by 800 or so huge crocs. We were able to walk out across a rather flimsy pier-like thing about 20 feet above the crocs swarming below. The owner has a huge operation, the concrete breeding areas are the size of several football fields. The crocs basically swim and laize around, do their reproductive thing then crawl into sandy bays that are situated all around the pond and lay their eggs. An employee then goes in a grabs the eggs, apparently he is missing a few fingers. Then the eggs are transferred to the hatchery. Once hatched, the baby animals are moved again into a “nursery” – I think they said they have thousands. Those that are raised for their skins (purses, belts, shoe, etc.) are grown further and transferred yet again to ponds and then killed as “adolescents”. The adult crocs stay in their pens, some are as old as 100 yrs, and they keep laying eggs. We were offered the opportunity to watch them feed a recently killed impala to the crocs, but as appealing as that sounded we decided to leave that one to our imaginations. The owner told us that they only need to eat about once every three weeks. They are mainly fed chickens and chicken parts. All in all, a very nasty, but reportedly lucrative operation. Animal welfare laws are lax here and folks get into the oddest businesses. More photos of creepy crocs!
The Next South Africa Entry: Trouble with a Capital “P”
The Whole Trip: South Africa – The Summary