This small collection (the one where you can swim with alligators - http://www.zoochat.com/58/irish-reptile-zoo-allows-visitors-swim-309033/) has received six juvenile saltwater crocodiles - the first ever hatched in NZ. Story here: Kiwi-hatched crocs hitch ride north - national | Stuff.co.nz
Two of the six have since been donated to British zoos. Three more will be going to the Crocodile Zoo in Denmark during February http://www.nationalreptilezoo.ie/see-you-later-alligator-in-a-while-crocodile/
Oh yes just what we need breeding Salties,given the huge numbers of collections looking to go into them,not a very good idea,also given the numbers that are being bred in their native home range there is just no need for them to be bred over here!!
One wonders which British zoos; the article made it sound like this happened a while ago, but I do not believe anywhere has put new individuals on-display for some time so they are presumably still offshow. Given BennettL comes from part of their home range, one would have thought they have more than enough supply of Salties without hoping for more to be bred
It would be better to spread an insurance population out of Australia incase something happens. BennettL
It would have to be a pretty *big* something to wipe out the wild population found throughout South Asia, Indonesia and Melanesia as well as the Australian population; in point of fact the Saltwater Crocodile is generally believed to be the crocodilian taxon least at threat of global extinction. Moreover, there *is* a massive captive population outside Australia already; there are dozens of collections in Asia holding and breeding the species, as zoogiraffe already alluded, along with at least 17 collections in Europe, and a fair few more in North America - and this discounts the thousands of individuals which are farmed in southeast Asia. In other words..... no.
Alright I agree.It would take something big to wipe out and actually Asia including Indonesia,south east Asia,Melania ect have a larger population than Australia. BennettL
I had never heard of this collection until yesterday, when I received an email about volunteering opportunities with the morelet's crocodile conservation project they support in Guatemala. Upon trying to find out more about the collection, it seems they're not listed on zootierliste. So, anybody know what species they hold, or have any general impressions of the collection?
