July 22, 2012

     A pretty exciting day at the zoo (for some background info, please see the Expedition: Animal World and Snake Farm Zoo page).  After the croc demo, I helped care for the mammals of the zoo, from kinkajoos to warthog piglets.  Here's a quick video of the piglets during feeding time.

The highlight of every Sunday is the 3 pm Croc Feeding demo.  If you have seen the late Steve Irwin feed crocs, you have a sense of what it looks like.  But imagine this: a man inside a croc pit that has over 30 hungry crocodiles and alligators, each about 10' or 12'. The moment he jumps into the enclosure, all the crocs converge on him, jaws snapping. The crocs bite onto anything, whether that be the chicken being fed to them or the feeder's leg. Pretty much every moment is life or death.  Here's a quick clip of the action (Jarrod, the head keeper, is the man for getting into the croc cage):

Here's a quick vid of a behind-the-scenes look at the croc pit:

San Antonio, Texas

Hi all,
  I'm now in San Antonio, Texas, for an internship with an energy company.  While down here, I've sampled some amazing BBQ, met amazing people, and had some very close encounters of a reptilian nature.  A few weeks ago, I visited the San Antonio Zoo, arguably one of the best zoos for reptile enthusiasts. It just so happens that they are running a specialty program that focuses on giant reptiles.  On display throughout the park were pythons, crocodilians, and komodo dragons. Having visited the zoo once before, I faintly remembered what some of the exhibits looked like (for example, the reptile house was basically unchanged).  However, I was struck by how much the zoo had expanded: the Africa, Amazonia, and Wet Land exhibits were new (to me at least) and very professionally done. I had the privilege of watching the zoo crew extract Tomistoma eggs from the croc's enclosure.  While I've read many papers on the Tomistoma (Tomistoma schlegelii), there's nothing like seeing the 12', flesh and blood croc defending its nest.  It was literally something straight out of the Crocodile Hunter. I talked with a staff member who was overseeing the entire operation and learned that the Tomistomas at the zoo were breeding on a semi-annual basis.  Indeed, the zoo was quite proud of their breeding program as evidenced by the front-and-center display of "Tomistoma babies born last year" exhibit in the reptile house. Even after all these years, the zoo doesn't fail to impress.

Here're some pics from my visit:

 The False Gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii)

 A gorgeous mountain rattlesnake (Crotalus spp.)