May 18th

 

One of the crocs living in the lagoon.

Today was our last day in Cairns before we complete our trip in Sydney. We traveled north along the coast to Hartley's Crocodile Adventures, a saltwater crocodile farm and wildlife preserve. The tour started at the portion of the park dedicated to the commercial crocodile farm. Hartley's is the only commercial crocodile farm in Australia that allows the public onto the premises, so we were lucky to see this portion of the operation. The hunting of wild crocs for skins was banned in 1974, which prompted the crocodile farming industry in Australia. Crocs are farmed mainly for their leather, but also for their meat, bones that can be turned into fertilizer, and fat which is used in cosmetics.

One of the crocs in the large enclosure basking in the sun.

Some of the younger crocs enjoying a dip in the water.

Production starts when they gather the eggs. Hartley's is a closed farm, meaning they only collect eggs from the breeding pens on farm, while open farms gather the eggs from the wild. These eggs are then incubated in the nursery. Crocodiles are unique in that temperature determines gender. A temperature of 90.5° F results in an equal hatching of males and females, cooler temperatures result in more females, hotter temperatures result in more males. The reason the farm incubates the eggs rather than letting them hatch in the wild is the low survival rate of wild hatchings. In fact, only 1% of wild born crocodiles make it to sexual maturity at age 12-14. Once the eggs hatch, the hatchlings are raised in a dark, climate-controlled nursery to decrease the stress on the babies. As they age, they are moved outdoors into tanks that have both dry areas for basking and little ponds of water. These tanks can be opened to allow for the young crocs to acclimate to changing weather and sounds but can be closed if they become stressed. Once they graduate out of the tanks, they are moved to large outdoor pens that can house up to 90 crocs depending on size and age. Pen requirements must allow the crocs to have access to both waters deep enough to submerge and dry sun basking areas. They also must have enough room to turn around. In the pens we saw there were between 20-45 crocs.

An example of a crocodile skin that Hartley’s produces, with a pen of nearly market ready crocs in the background.

When the crocs reach 2-3 years of age, they are approximately 4.5-6.0 feet in length. This is the ideal market size for the harvest of leather. This species of saltwater croc is used for leather production because they have less armor, which means that more of the leather can be used for higher end products such as handbags. The armored tail and back are more often used in belts. While most of the crocs are used for leather production, they do set aside several females for the breeding pens. The females and males, reach sexual maturity between 12 and 14 years of age. In the wild crocs will live between 60 and 90 years, but it is unknown how old they get in captivity because crocodiles have no physiological age indicators.

Feeding one of the crocodiles in the lagoon a bit of chicken from the boat. Fun fact: Crocodiles can push up to 2/3rds of their body out of the water straight into the air going after prey.

One of the male Cassowaries that the students had the opportunity to feed. This one was named Adam, and he is at least 55 years old.

After our tour of the commercial side of the operation, we walked into the adventure side of the park where we started with a Cassowary feeding. The Cassowaries we saw were the Southern Cassowary, also known as the Wattled Cassowary. They are the only species found in Australia, and the other two species are found in Papua, New Guinea. They are flightless birds and are in the same family as Ostriches, Emus, and Kiwis. They are the second largest bird in terms of weight, and third in terms of height. They are important to the rainforests of Australia because they are a keystone species. Of the four cassowaries we saw, only one was raised in captivity, and the others were rehomed after car strike. One of the males is at least 55 years old. Cassowaries are often known as most dangerous birds on the planet because they have large toe claws and when they deliver a kick they can rip open their attacker. After the talk, students had the opportunity to feed the birds their fruit.

A koala taking a nap in a tree.

Following the Cassowary feeding students had the opportunity to wander the park and see the other animals. There was Koalas, Wombats, Kangaroos, Emus, Crocs, Alligators, Rainforest birds, and Turtles to name a few. Some of the students had a chance to feed the Kangaroos and Wallabies by hand in their enclosure. It was a great opportunity to see some of the animals we had not yet seen in the wild, and see others at a much closer distance.

Before a boat tour of the lagoon, we all gathered together to celebrate Kalli’s birthday with a delicious chocolate cake. We then divided into two groups to go out onto the manmade lagoon in two boats. This lagoon had 20 females and ten male crocodiles that are very territorial. Since crocs are very territorial the guide was able to tell which croc it was more by what area it was in rather than by looks. Many of these crocs had been rehomed to the lagoon due to violent behaviors or close proximity to humans. The largest male is thought have killed 30 cattle in the mid 1970’s which was why he was rehomed. This is also dominant croc in the lagoon.

From Hartley’s we drove 45 minutes back to Cairns where we went through the airport, grabbed lunch, and got on our approximately 3 hour flight to Sydney. We flew along the coast before heading more inland. When we arrived in Sydney it was raining hard. From the airport we made it to our hotel, and then in groups went off to dinner somewhere downtown.