Crocodile Farm:
A few of summers ago I got to travel to India. We had a fabulous time...but that is a story for another time. On one occassion, we got to visit a real Crocodile Farm miles in the outskirts of Chennai, a southern seaport which formerly was called Madras.
Well away from the dust of the city in a fairly idyllic village, right near the seashore, off the Bay of Bengal was this gem of a research park. For those of you living in Florida, seeing alligators may be no big deal. But for the rest of us, this was amazing. I have never seen so many crocs in one place. The typical zoo may have a couple or even a few. But this spectacular. Hundreds or perhasp even thousands of them...See the pictures I have posted if you are get a sense of this in one of the ponds and a small section of that. Crocs of every variety and stripe. The largest of all was this humungous giant called appropriately, by someone with a sense of humor, Jaws 3.
To see these crocs lazing about, to get to touch a baby croc, was interesting. The kids got to touch it as well.
The most intersting story of these crocs that I learnt is that the sex of the reptile depends on the temprature at which the eggs incubate. Warmer temperatures mean one sex and cooler means another! I had never heard anything like this before in my life and I thought i had heard it all!
A few of summers ago I got to travel to India. We had a fabulous time...but that is a story for another time. On one occassion, we got to visit a real Crocodile Farm miles in the outskirts of Chennai, a southern seaport which formerly was called Madras.
Well away from the dust of the city in a fairly idyllic village, right near the seashore, off the Bay of Bengal was this gem of a research park. For those of you living in Florida, seeing alligators may be no big deal. But for the rest of us, this was amazing. I have never seen so many crocs in one place. The typical zoo may have a couple or even a few. But this spectacular. Hundreds or perhasp even thousands of them...See the pictures I have posted if you are get a sense of this in one of the ponds and a small section of that. Crocs of every variety and stripe. The largest of all was this humungous giant called appropriately, by someone with a sense of humor, Jaws 3.
To see these crocs lazing about, to get to touch a baby croc, was interesting. The kids got to touch it as well.
The most intersting story of these crocs that I learnt is that the sex of the reptile depends on the temprature at which the eggs incubate. Warmer temperatures mean one sex and cooler means another! I had never heard anything like this before in my life and I thought i had heard it all!
Since the I have run into more examples of other critters. Your turn to post examples a la Olivia Judson of the New York Times.
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