Animal Diaries Archive

Crocs in the Crocoseum.

28 September 2007

A part of the Croc Teams everyday daily duties is to present shows in the Animal Planet Crocoseum. The crocodile show is the last of three animal shows presented, the first being the snakes followed by the free flight birds and then the Crocoseum show concludes with what we are best known for, our crocodiles.

But how do we get the world's largest living reptile, an animal which has changed very little in the last 60 million years to do what we want in this modern day arena? We obviously can't call a crocodile by its name and have it come running like a dog. So how is it done? We play on the crocodiles natural instincts, to stalk their prey and defend their territory. We basically send out a mixture of signals that the crocodile responds too. Firstly when we raise the gate to their enclosure out in the back of the Crocoseum we make ourselves obvious and splash in the water with a white food bucket.

This works in two ways, firstly the crocodile wants to defend its territory and the white bucket represents the crocodiles food which is obviously a large drive for the crocodile. As we work the crocodile into the main arena we begin to tap our feet on the edge of the pond sending out vibrations which the crocodile receives and the crocodile responds by stalking us. As the show progress' we chop and change between making ourselves obvious such that the crocodile will be territorial towards us to sending out the vibrations from the land which echoes out into the water so that the croc will stalk again. All along the way he's getting a feed which is all apart of the show and how to get the crocodile to do what we want. So by playing on those two natural instincts that drive the crocodile we are able to move them from out the back of the Crocoseum, do a show in the main arena and then lead them home.

After a while this even becomes somewhat of a routine but everyday is different and we really don't know exactly how the crocodile is going to react on the day until we are out there. The Crocoseum ponds are heated so the crocodiles can be fed all year round but being a reptile they really love the summer heat and humidity. At the end of the day is about grabbing the crowds attention so we can get through our conservation message.

The Crocoseum Rules!