Im sorry I have been so behind, but there is just so much to do that I am constantly busy. Today we spent the day at Hutley's Crocodile Farm. It was very interesting and depressing to experience considering this farm raises crocodiles for harvesting their skins. We started our day at the crocodile farm with an exclusive tour of farm itself, and how they go about obtaining and raising the baby crocodiles. The guide showed us the hatchery as well as various tanks that they leave the crocodiles in to grow. These tanks are kept at specified temperatures and are pitch black to allow for optimal growth all year long. Once they are big enough they are kept in enclosures with a lot of others to continue to grow. The way the crocodiles were all packed in the enclosures was actually kind of gross.
After we got all of our questions answered our tour guide held a baby crocodile for us to touch the skin and take pictures with. It is amazing how different the top of the crocodile and its belly feel so different! We also learned how much the value of a crocodile skin can change due to the amount of nicks and scratches it has on it, typically from being in the wild.
Once we left the behind the scenes portion of the tour we were guided to the crocodile feeding. This farm has about 16 crocodiles within the man made lagoon that surrounds the facilities. Unlike humans crocodiles can go months without eating, but they get fed a little bit each day at this farm. After the feeding it was time for lunch and a short break before we took a boat tour through the lagoon. I was a little nervous especially when the boat driver explained the safety rules in case something happened to the boat out on the water. Don't worry we made it out safely! As soon as the boat tour was over we had the rest of the afternoon to explore the whole park. Lucky for me they had kangaroos and wallabies, which we got to pet and feed! It may have been the highlight of my day. I stayed there playing with them for a solid hour before moving on.
Right next to the kangaroos was a koala enclosure, but as cute as koalas are they are really no fun to watch considering they sleep for about 14 hours or more a day to digest the eucalyptus leaves. Once we all got bored staring at the sleeping koala we decided to watch the snake show. This show was very intriguing because although it was all about snakes it revolved more around how to avoid snake bites and what to do in case you do get attacked. However, the speaker was holding the most venomous snake in the world at one point. Im not a huge fan of snakes to begin with, so knowing how deadly this snake was made me move from the second row next to everybody to the second to last row.
Directly after the snake show was the crocodile attack show where a guide got a crocodile to simulate a n attack in real life. With this show he described ways to avoid crocodile attacks and also what to do if you get attacked although there is not much you can do. Watching these animals eat was rather repulsive.
The crocodile farm was a very interesting experience, and although it was fun I think if it would have been half a day instead of a whole day it would have made it that much more interesting. By the end of the day I was just laying in the sun reading my book. After a long day at the crocodile farm, and with an early morning tomorrow for white water rafting we found a nice place to enjoy dinner and then it was an early night to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment