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: