Gatorama hosts CrocFest to help save species

Gatorama will host the International CrocFest this Saturday, Dec. 8, for the first time, and three “superstars of crocodilian conservation” will attend the semiannual fundraising event. It's also the first time the three will appear together to discuss the state of conservation efforts for the species.

The event, which had its start in 2010 as “Barbecue for the Crocs” at Crocodile Creek Bio-Center in Bushnell, is a fundraiser conducted by the CrocFest organization to benefit specific endangered crocodile species and individual researchers working on programs to conserve them.

The 2018 Winter CrocFest's beneficiary species is the gharial, a critically endangered, fish-eating and very territorial member of the crocodile family on the Indian subcontinent (Gavialis gangeticus is its scientific name), which is losing population. All proceeds will benefit the Gharial Ecology Project, the Gharial Conservation Alliance and many scientists in India who are studying the complex social structure exhibited by this subspecies. Adult male gharial, which can weigh up to 550 pounds, breed all adult females in their domain, which then nest communally.

CrocFest draws people from all over the world — crocodile keepers, private collectors, zoo board members, researchers, biologists, champions of conservation and people who love crocodilians (which include animals other than crocodiles, such as caimans). The event will be capped off by a lively auction of unique art, artifacts, collector items, zoological supplies and small reptiles. A dinner is served and an open bar is included along with the fun of “Gatorventures” at Gatorama.

The “trifecta of the crocodile world,” as Gatorama owner Patty Register described them, consists of prominent Australian educator and conservationist Grahame Webb, chairman of the Species Survival Commission for the International Union for Conservation of Nature; Rom Whitaker, an American Indian herpetologist and conservationist who founded the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust; and Jeffrey Lang, biology professor emeritus at the University of North Dakota and senior scientific adviser to the Gharial Ecology Project.

Mrs. Register, who operates the attraction on U.S. 27 with husband Allen, a state-licensed alligator trapper and farmer, said Gatorama actually will be closed for the day Saturday for the fundraiser but that anyone is welcome to join in the event.

“It promises to be the best CrocFest yet, and hopefully will raise more money than we have ever raised for crocodile conservation,” she said. The trio will give presentations about their work, and there will be a lot of social interaction and networking among the educators, experts and others expected to attend.

The park will be open from noon until 8 p.m., and the donation to crocodile conservation covers everything. “We'll be operating just like another day,” Mrs. Register said. “All the (usual) activities are available, but that $25 is a donation directly to CrocFest that covers admission, dinner and an open bar. And then there's an auction, which has all kinds of different items. It's turning out to be a real artsy one.”

It's like losing a part of your heart

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin passed away when he was attacked by a stingray while filming “Ocean's Deadliest” in 2006 at age 44, leaving behind two children. His daughter Bindi, who was just 8 years old at the time, admitted she is still coping with the tragic loss.

“I remember people coming up to me and saying, ‘I'm sorry for your loss, sweetheart. Time heals all wounds.' But that's just not true,” the 20-year-old recently told People magazine, which hit newsstands Wednesday.

“It's like losing a part of your heart, and when you've lost that, you never get it back,” she shared.

Irwin, who achieved international stardom for his televised death-defying stunts involving crocodiles, was at the Great Barrier Reef off Australia's northeast coast where his documentary was taking place at the time of his death.

According to witnesses on his boat Croc One, as well as one nearby diving vessel, a stingray's barb pierced Irwin's chest and lodged in his heart after he came close to it.

The family is determined to keep the legacy of their beloved patriarch alive.

Bindi, her younger brother Robert, 15, and their mother Terri, 54, have worked together to spread the message of their conservation nonprofit Wildlife Warriors throughout the world. They also launched a series on Animal Planet titled “Crickey! It's the Irwins,” which follows their lives as they work at the Australia Zoo.

“I'm sure hope dad would be proud,” said Bindi. “We really do try every day to make him proud and follow in his footsteps. I hope that somewhere he's out there going, ‘Yes! You did good!'”

Robert, who was just 2 years old when he lost his father, said he and his sibling have zero regrets in continuing Irwin's environmental mission.

“No matter where we go, or what we do, we'll always come back here,” said Robert. “This is our passion. It's a part of us and Australia Zoo will always be home.”

Palawan police recover body of fisherman attacked by crocodile

Authorities recovered Wednesday, November 28, the mutilated body of a fishermen who was believed to have been attacked by a crocodile in Balabac, an island town in the southernmost part of Palawan.

Police identified the body as that of 33-year-old Cornelio Bonete, a resident of Barangay Poblacion 5 whom relatives reported missing since Tuesday, November 27.

Senior Inspector Francis Rey Manito, Balabac police chief, told Rappler over the phone that the mutilated body of Bonete was found 4 p.m. Wednesday in Sitio Bual, Barangay Malaking Ilog.

Manito said Bonete's right arm and left foot were both severed from his body, while the right foot was broken. There were also multiple wounds all over Bonete's body, said Manito, most probably caused by crocodile bites.

Police authorities, along with Balabac mayor Al-hazni Astami, retrieved the body, Manito added.

Bonete, a resident of Barangay Poblacion 5, was last seen early Tuesday, November 27. His family said he did not return home since after he attended to his fishing boat.

Earlier, a local radio station broadcast an unverified report that the mutilated body of Bonete was found in Barangay Salang, some 6 kilometers from where he was last seen.

Balabac is known for recurrent human-crocodile conflicts, being the stronghold of saltwater crocodiles in the Philippines. Last month, a 16-year-old high school student survived a crocodile attack also in Barangay Poblacion 5.

Crocodile expert Rainier Manalo reminded Balabac residents to be wary as November starts the crocodiles' breeding or mating season. He said it lasts until February, while their egg-laying season falls in March until August.

“During this time crocodiles are very active and highly protective in their territories,” Manalo, executive director of Davao-based non-profit Crocodylus Porosus Philippines Inc, told Rappler in a text message.

Manalo's group has been continuously studying years of human-crocodile conflict in Balabac. They attribute the crocodile attacks to the increase in habitat loss due to mangrove conversion and debarking in major areas in town.

“Human-crocodile conflict is not easily prevented if there's an increasing habitat destruction,” he said.

The Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), an environment agency tasked to implement R.A. 9147 or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act, said its communication team held a crocodile awareness campaign in town recently.

“The only way to avoid [the human-crocodile conflict] is mitigation. Meaning, people should always be aware that crocodiles are present in their area and take responsibility, being diligent enough to avoid an encounter with crocodiles,” PCSD spokesman Jovic Fabello told Rappler in a separate interview.

Fabello added the presence of crocodiles in town is a “common knowledge to the residents and it saddens us an incident like this still happened.”

The Balabac municipal government previously told Rappler that its staff had also conducted information drives in affected barangays of Catagupan, Rabor, Poblacion and Agutayan, and also installed warning signs reminding vulnerable residents to stay away from river swamps identified as crocodiles' habitat.

Hippos Save a Wildebeest From Crocodile's Jaws

Watering holes are often exciting places to watch animals interact, and new video from Kruger National Park in South Africa doesn't disappoint.

While touring the massive park, a couple happened upon a wildebeest that had just been bitten by a crocodile. It's likely the herbivore had approached the water for a drink when it was ambushed from below. The wildebeest struggled to free itself but the crocodile kept a firm grip on the slender leg in its powerful jaws.

For nearly eight minutes, the wildebeest and crocodile were engaged in a ferocious game of tug-of-war, and eventually the wildebeest appeared to tire.

Slowly the crocodile began to drag the wildebeest under water. Crocodiles, with their long, heavy bodies and stubby legs, have the biggest advantage over large prey like wildebeest when submerged.

As the wildebeest becomes more and more overwhelmed by the water and the crocodile's persistent pull, two hippopotamuses approach from offscreen. Suddenly, they charge toward the crocodile, causing it to lose its grip on the wildebeest. The mammal broke free. But with a likely broken leg, it may not survive long.

So did the hippos rush in to "save" a wildebeest in need?

Not likely, says Douglas McCauley, a National Geographic explorer and professor at the University of California Santa Barbara. Despite the fact that they're herbivores too, hippos can be extremely aggressive. Earlier this month, a sleeping hippo in Kenya was startled by a lion and snapped the big cat's neck.

McCauley offered two theories for why the hippos, likely sub-dominant males, incidentally "freed" the wildebeest.

The first is that the crocodile had encroached too closely on the hippos' territory. Hippos and crocodiles, which both frequent watering holes, generally are wary of each other. Hippos are too big and powerful for crocodiles to eat and hippos generally confine their prey to vegetation. But when a crocodile gets within about two meters (six feet) of a hippo, the territorial mammals may snap or charge, says McCauley.

McCauley's second hypothesis, the one he says is more likely in this case, is that the wildebeest's splashing prompted the hippos to stake their territory.

"My best guess is that the hippos are acting very aggressive toward anything that tries to enter the water. They'll come charging in and try to drive you away," he explained. (Watch what happens when a hippo attacks a boat.)

In other words, while the hippos appear to be "rescuing" the wildebeest in the video, it's more likely they were aggressively claiming their territory.

So even though the video doesn't necessarily show a case of hippo altruism, McCauley says it's a great example of how animals co-habituate and share space in the wild.

The Strange, Grisly World of Crocodile Hunting in Australia

THERE ARE MORE than 100,000 saltwater crocodiles in northern Australia. They grow more 20 feet long, weigh over 1000 pounds, and bite with a force exceeding the weight of a small car. And yet there are a group of people crazy enough to hunt them. They cruise around in boats at night with nothing more than a big light, a big harpoon, and a gun, searching for pairs of glowing eyes peeking just above the water.

"It's somewhat unnerving," says photographer Trevor Frost. "It's not like I think the crocodile is going to jump out of the water and eat me on the boat. But it's eerie. Eyes are everywhere."

Frost tagged along on 11 hunts for his ongoing series Cult of the Crocodile. The project captures all aspects of the croc-human relationship, from a breeding farm producing highest-quality skins to delighted tourists gawking at crocodiles gobbling up chicken meat. "Here's this creature that's been around for millions of years unchanged," he says. "It can kill people. Some people love it. Some people hate it. And there's this entire industry around it."

Nicknamed "salties," the Australian crocodile lurks in warm rivers, lagoons and billabongs, chomping down on large beasts like pigs, water buffalo, and even sharks. But in the 1960s, the crocodile disappeared almost completely due to over hunting. The government banned killing them in 1971, and the population quickly bounced back. Today, a crocodile management program provides "incentives-based" conservation, allowing for a regulated $100 million commercial industry that includes collecting wild eggs, breeding, and about 1,200 hunting permits a year. Hunters must describe the crocodile they want to kill, then film the death so authorities can verify it was cruelty-free. Many crocodiles are killed due to complaints from locals about them wandering too close to neighborhoods or eating their cattle.

Frost lives in Richmond, Virgina and became fascinated with crocodiles when he visited Australia in 2013 on assignment. He met hunter Aaron Rodwell while purchasing a souvenir crocodile tooth, and Rodwell eagerly showed Frost a cell phone video of him wrangling a croc with his bare hands. Frost was hooked. "The hunters are exposing themselves to a serious amount of risk in order to get a crocodile, and it could go either way," he says. "The crocodile could get one of them. Or they could get the crocodile."

He shadowed Rodwell and his partner Roger Matthews on hunts over the next three years. The men set sail in a small aluminum boat at night, beaming a spotlight into the water to pick up the creature's eyes. They then quietly sidle up beside it and thrust a harpoon in its neck, letting the croc thrash and hiss in the water up to several hours until it tires out. They then lasso its jaw shut, hoist it onto the boat, and execute it with a .22 revolver. There were some close calls. Once, Frost was shooting when a 16-foot croc chomped down on the side of the boat and shook it violently. "When you hear, ‘Get the fuck down!' that's when it's scary," he says. "Afterwards your heart is beating a thousand miles an hour."

The cinematic images are fascinating, strange, and often downright grisly. In one photo, a man sits in a hot tub with baby crocs he keeps as pets. In another, Rodwell and Matthews pose proudly with a crocodile strung up in a tree. It's something you don't see every day, but not so unusual in a land of 100,000 crocs.

Komodo dragon wows visitors at Crocodile Bank

It is two weeks since a Komodo dragon began to be displayed prominently at a special enclosure at The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology in Mamallapuram. The reptile is one of four that arrived at the crocodile bank last April. These four reptiles had been flown down from Bronx Zoo in New York.

"The New York zoo gave them in exchange of 12 juvenile gharials from the Crocodile Bank. At that time, the Komodo dragons were three-year-olds. Unable to adapt to the new conditions, especially the Chennai heat, one of them died. We had provided them with temperature gradient. They needed time to acclimatise to their new environment and so, for the past one year, the reptiles were quarantined and not allowed into the visitors' arena," says Alwin Jesudasan, assistant director of the Crocodile Bank.

The dragon's indigenous habitat is the Komodos Island in Indonesia, and it is similar to the monitor lizard (udumbu). "The reptile is classified as 'vulnerable' as per the red list of International Union for Conservation of Nature. Another interesting feature of Komodos that has been reported from many zoos across the world is that the females have laid fertile eggs without ever being in contact with a male. This form of reproduction is called parthenogenesis," adds Alwin.

Now, each of the three surviving reptiles is five feet long and weigh 12 kg. They can grow up to 10 ft long and weigh 80 kg. Their can live up to 40 years. The Komodo species is supposed to be the largest in the lizard family.

"The animals have been kept in different enclosures. Instructors of Bronx Zoo had warned us against placing them together as they would hurt each other," says Alwin.

This Unexpected City Is Forging A Sustainable Path

Cuba is often celebrated for its classic 1950s cars, historic buildings, vibrant music, and mojitos. But what about the environmental commitment of its citizens? During a recent stay in Havana, I noticed some incredibly creative ways locals are living a little greener. Although many of their routines stem from necessity, they inspired me to take some new eco-habits back home with me.

1. They walk, bus, and share rides.
Like New Yorkers, people in Havana are on the move at all hours of the day, coming and going to work and school, or for a night out. They crisscross the wide parks and plazas by foot and jump on a big metro bus for longer distances. And long before there were ride-sharing apps, people here would hail a local taxi, often a classic 1950s car, and share it with as many as could fit. These days, metro buses cover most of Havana, employers provide group transportation to the office, and decentralized work sites are encouraged so people don't have to travel as far.

2. They capture the power of the sun.
On a recent trip to Cienfuegos on the South Coast, I was happy to spot a solar hot water heater on the roof of the Casa Particular, or bed-and-breakfast, where we stayed. I then learned that the island had 10,500 solar water heaters as of 2015, and solar panels will likely soon be added to city schools and hospitals. Sunshine in Cuba is very strong, so it makes sense to tap that source of renewable energy.

3. They work to save wildlife.
In order to protect the Cuban crocodile, 40 Cuban and 30 international conservation experts collaborated on a project in a wildlife refuge located in the south of the island. With the support of Cuban conservation groups and the Wildlife Conservation Society of the United States, they released 10 crocodiles into the wild wetlands on the Zapata Peninsula. They also shared plans for further research and monitoring of the crocodiles, among many other joint efforts to save the animals. With the help of the WCS, the Bronx Zoo in New York City was the first U.S. zoo to breed the Cuban crocodile.

4. They put the pedal to the metal.
Whether it's on an old-school city bike with no gears, the latest mountain bike, or a bike taxi, Cubans cycle often. Especially outside of Havana, where the pace of life slows down and traffic diminishes, the islanders ride around nonchalantly, perfectly balanced on two wheels as they go to work or the market. These days, groups of tourists on mountain bikes are asked to use tiny video cameras to record the adventure to help the country develop more sustainable tourism.

5. They hang it out to dry.
My grandmother believed that using the sun and wind as a dryer made the clothes cleaner and fresher, and I have continued her practice. In Havana and across the vast island of Cuba, on rooftops and in backyards, you can see clotheslines swaying in the breeze, festooned with brightly hued clothes. Just imagine the amount of electricity this saves a year.

6. They hoof it.
Horseback riding is a big tradition in Cuba that carries on to this day. On my bus trip to the picturesque town of Trinidad, a UNESCO World Heritage site, I saw horse-drawn carriages and a Cuban cowboy on horseback. In rural areas as well as towns across the island, you hear the clip-clop sound of horse shoes. This tradition helps limit the amount of petroleum that needs to be imported.

7. They live in the open air.
While air conditioning is found in many business offices, there is a great tradition of enjoying outdoor spaces, from balconies and patios to sidewalk cafes. The old-world architecture plays a role, with arcaded buildings providing shade on miles of sidewalks in the center of Havana. Life spills out into the small squares, parks, and tree-lined streets, but the favored destination for Habaneros and visitors is the famed seaside promenade, the Malecon, which stretches 5 miles along the Florida Straits. Waves crash against the sea wall, and a strong ocean breeze blows consistently. Known as the living room of the city, it's a popular meeting place for families, couples, runners, and fishermen.

8. They shop locally.
Cuban-grown coffee, freshly baked bread, and their local bottled water, juices, and ice cream can give you an authentic taste of the island. The verdant countryside produces tropical fruit in abundance that is sold fresh—no packaging needed. Pineapples, papayas, mangos, guavas, limes, and bananas are stacked up on the markets and tossed into canvas bags at purchase.

Crocodiles and climate change

Remember Tick Tock, the crocodile in the Disney animated movie "Peter Pan"? He had swallowed an alarm clock, and you can always hear him coming.

Tick Tock is always coming for the evil Captain Hook. Ever since Peter Pan cut off Hook's hand and fed it to the crocodile, Tick Tock has been pursuing Hook relentlessly, wanting nothing more than to gobble up the rest of him.

Unfortunately for Tick Tock (and fortunately for Hook), he's a very big crocodile and moves extremely slowly. So Hook always listens for the sound of a ticking clock, and when he hears it, he knows it's time to get moving before the always-hungry Tick Tock catches up with him.

Well, kids, here's some bad news. We have our own Tick Tock heading our way. It's called climate change. It's moving slowly, like the crocodile, but it never stops.

We don't notice changing climate from day to day because of short-term fluctuations in weather and medium-term seasonal weather patterns like shifts in the jet stream. So it's easy to believe that the climate isn't really changing at all. But it is.

Setting aside all the weather-related highs and lows, how fast is our climate changing? And will it, like the slow but steady Tick Tock, ever catch us and eat us?

One way to visualize climate change is to compare the rate that our own hometown is warming with the rate that we would warm up if we headed south to Orlando, Fla., home of Disney World and our friend the ticking crocodile.

Let's compare the numbers. First, if we stay in just one place, how fast will our climate warm?

According to NASA scientists, the average temperature in the United States is increasing by 0.37 degrees Fahrenheit every decade. Rounding off, that's about 0.04 degrees per year. Doesn't sound like much, right?

Well, that's 10 times the rate of the fastest global warming period ever recorded or estimated by scientists by looking at geological evidence. It's incredibly fast as Earth's history goes, but not something you'd notice from year to year.

Now let's look at how fast you'd warm up if you headed south from Pittsburgh to Orlando to visit our friend Tick Tock.

Orlando's average temperature over the course of a year is 73 degrees. Here in Pittsburgh, it's 52 degrees. So that's a difference of 21 degrees.

Orlando is 781 miles south of Pittsburgh. Do the math, and you'll see that for every mile that you go south, the temperature increases by, on the average, 0.027 degrees.

Well, that's interesting! Go south for a mile and a half and the temperature increases by 0.04 degrees. Don't want to leave home? No problem. Just wait a year and the temperature will also increase by 0.04 degrees!

In other words, for every year that goes by, it's as if you, your family, your house, your yard and your entire neighborhood all slid southward by a mile and a half.

How fast does something move if it travels 1.5 miles per year? Not fast at all if you're sitting and watching it, assuming that the chair that you're sitting in is unaffected by climate change and is not also moving southward. A mile and a half per year is roughly 22 feet per day. That's 11 inches per hour.

Now, if you see that your house is sliding south at 11 inches per hour, you might think that's nothing to worry about, right? It's about the width of a toothpick every three seconds. Get down on your hands and knees and look with a magnifying glass and you'd see your house grinding very slowly through the dirt. Step back a couple of steps, though, and you won't see it.

But such little movements add up. Sure, you can't see your house moving south. But go to bed at night, and you'll wake up in the morning to find that you're 4 or 5 feet closer to Disney World than when you went to bed. A year later you'll be a mile and a half closer to the sunny South.

Seventy five years from now, you and your house will be, more or less, at the latitude of Washington, D.C. Not a bad place to be. But as you sit on your front porch, you'll probably think back to when it used to snow in the winter. Yup, you say, we just don't see snow much anymore. I remember when we used to go sledding in the winter and the snowdrifts were up to here.

Massive crocodile frightens villagers in C. Java

A five-meter long crocodile terrorized residents of Kedungwiangun village in Klirong district, Kebumen regency, Central Java, on Tuesday.

The reptile was spotted in the paddy and is believed to have been carried to the location by the overflowing Luk Ulo River following heavy rain the night before.

Some residents tried to catch the animal, but in doing so they provoked it to get out of the water, run wild and cause panic.

"We were unaware that the crocodile is that big. So we all ran away once it got to the ground with its mouth wide open," said villager Turyono. "It came after us fast. It was ferocious."

Numerous attempts to catch the apparently angered crocodile failed. Some tried to use bamboo sticks and steel wire to snare it, but the reptile broke the trap.

"The crocodile then disappeared, but villagers are now haunted by fear that it could return," Turyono said.

Kebumen Police spokesman Adj. Comr. Willy Budiyanto criticized the villagers for attempting to catch the animal.

"It is dangerous to try to catch a crocodile without proper knowledge, not to mention the fact that they did it at very close range," he said.

In Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, a 50-year-old man is missing after he was reportedly attacked by a wild crocodile near the Balang Island bridge on Wednesday.

"The man, Maskur, was attacked when he and his two children set up a fish trap," said Octavianto from the East and North Kalimantan SAR Agency.

'Idiots of the century' swim in baited croc trap

A group of men seen swimming inside a baited crocodile trap in Australia near where a woman was recently eaten were blasted as "idiots of the century" Tuesday.

Photos posted on Facebook showed the four men clambering on the floating trap set near a marina at Port Douglas in northern Queensland state and even posing inside it.

It is not far from where a 4.3-metre (14-foot) croc killed dementia sufferer Anne Cameron.

The beast that took the 79-year-old less than two weeks ago was trapped and human remains found inside, but plenty of other crocodiles inhabit the rivers and seas in the area.

Douglas Shire Mayor Julia Leu said she was stunned at their stupidity.

"I was absolutely gobsmacked, this is incredibly stupid and dangerous behaviour," she said told broadcaster ABC.

"I'm wondering if these fellows are vying for the idiots of the year award or the idiots of the century award."

Queensland Environment Minister Steven Miles also weighed in, tweeting: "Srsly? The meat we put in these traps is bait. For crocodiles. Don't swim in them! It's stupid, and illegal."

Saltwater crocodiles, which can grow up to seven metres long and weigh more than a tonne, are a common feature of Australia's tropical north and kill an average of two people a year.

Their numbers have exploded since they were declared a protected species in the 1970s, with Cameron's death reigniting calls to control them.

Queensland's environment department said the men's actions were "reckless".

"These traps are specifically designed to attract crocodiles and they are deployed in places where a problem crocodile is known to be present," it said in a statement.

"It is not an exaggeration to say that interfering with crocodile traps can be potentially life-threatening for the person concerned."

There are fines of up to Aus$15,000 (US$11,700) for interfering with a crocodile trap.