Saturday, 7 December 2013
Crocodile attack by Megan
We haven't managed to see crocodiles in the wild so far, so my Mum and Dad took us to Hartley's crocodile adventure park. When we arrived, we were greeted by some parrots. They were sat on a long stick with a silver bowl of food attached to it. On the desk there was a huge tank, but Emma and I couldn't see anything inside it.
First we went on a boat cruise across a lagoon filled with crocodiles; 26 altogether!
The boat was really well designed, and luckily had glass panels to protect us from the crocodiles. The man hung a piece of chicken onto a rod, and started to splash it around in the water in order to get the crocodile's attention. The water was very shallow, yet the crocodile could still swim up undetected with no ripples on the surface. A crocodile swam up, and jumped out of the water to get the chicken. On the side of the banking there was a female croc guarding her nest. There were no eggs in the nest, as the staff had taken them out to take to the farm, but as she doesn't know this, she will continue to guard the nest until March.
After that, the man out some meat on a branch, and the second largest bird of prey in Australia ( a type of eagle), swooped down and picked it up.
Once we had finished, we went on a crocodile farm tour. There were 5 massive tanks where they put 2 crocs to mate. At one time a female can lay roughly between40 and 60 eggs. The staff then take the eggs, and put them in an incubator. The temperature of the incubator is adjusted to decide the gender of the crocs. They make them male, as they grow bigger and quicker. Once they are old enough, the baby crocodiles are then put in a pen together until they are three. They have make sure the crocs don't fight, as they want them to have A+ skin, as it sells for more. At three years old, the crocs gets stunned, killed and then they sell the body parts for a variety of purposes. We got to touch a baby croc's belly!
After that we went to the snake show. I volunteered to hold a lizard, and the man asked me to walk around with it so everyone else in the audience could stroke it.
When I had finished, the man was busy talking about a snake, so I had to put the lizard on my knee and wait. I looked down and realised the lizard had pooed!!!
Next we went to see a crocodile attack show. One of the keepers went into a crocodiles enclosure, and told us all about how crocodiles attack and kill people; including showing us the death roll. It was really exciting, but you would never catch me in there!!
Last but not least, we fed the cassawary birds and stroked a koala.
I had a great day, and I now know just how sneaky and dangerous crocodiles can be!!
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