Six saltwater crocodiles have today hatched at Butterfly Creek, in Auckland, apparently a first for New Zealand. The eggs were imported from the Northern Territory. As well as these crocs, Butterfly Creek also has two adult crocs, five young American Alligators, some common (in NZ) reptiles and birds, and a variety of fish and invertebrates, the most interesting of which are tarantulas (King Baboon, Zebra and Pink-toed) and obviously the butterflies. BUTTERFLY CREEK - Crocodile Eggs Hatching Soon
I would agree this is probably a first for NZ (and not purely publicity spin as is often the case), but only because crocs have never been imported as eggs before and no species has yet been bred in NZ. Still good news though. The more crocs in NZ the better There's a video on this link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/cutestuff/5085641
Crocs move North The six Saltwater Crocs born hatched in 2011 have been sent to Ireland, where they will be displayed at Reptile Village. Not surprised that Butterfly Creek couldn't keep them, but somewhat surprised another zoo in NZ didn't take some of them, especially Ti Point Reptile Park. Story here: Kiwi-hatched crocs hitch ride north - national | Stuff.co.nz
well, um, that seems like a real waste of time and what I would suggest is just a case of bad management. One of the first rules of keeping animals is not to obtain animals you don't have the space for!
I don't know, they probably used them a lot for publicity, and could have handled them for up close encounters and photo opportunities. The eggs were probably cheap/free with the adults and it would have been educational for the staff to raise eggs to juveniles. At least they managed to offload them somewhere, even if it is a place called Reptile Village. Perhaps this was all planned before the eggs even hatched, while Reptile Village organised the exhibit or something? Or maybe they got very lucky.
they certainly would have made good use of them while they had them, but that doesn't make up for not having anywhere to put them when they got bigger. They were a completely separate import to the adults -- the adults came over two years before the eggs were imported. they got lucky. Even their own press release says "It was important to us to not send them to a croc farm where they would face a very uncertain future. We approached more than 60 zoos around the world." -- in other words, they had no plan.
