Egrets, ears and ewwwwww!

The last few days have been manic.  We are cleaning virtually the whole place as there is an inspection on Monday.  My main job has to been to scrub bird poop off walls surrounding the enclosures and a few pond scrubs too.  Its dirty smelly work, but somewhat satisfying to see the difference once each section is finished.

I am looking forward to Monday evening very much indeed!

I have also been feeling rotten the last couple of days and during the night I discovered I had another ear infection.  I am very unimpressed as this is the second one in just over a month.  Considering I don't remember having one in my adult years at all, then to have two like this is very frustrating!  I only have half a course of drugs as for some reason the Dr only prescribed that for me.  So I am hoping I can source another half course.  Cross fingers!

One of the night heron chicks on a fence int he pond

There are 2 night heron chicks who have fallen from their nest and are in the Siamese and Nile enclosures (side by side enclosures).  They've been there for several days now and I can't help but wonder what their fate will be.  They are probably not old enough to source their own food yet.  They drink from the crocodile ponds but so far the crocs have left them alone.  They can't fly yet either so I suspect it won't end well…  Poor little things.

A night heron

An egret at sunset

Egret

Egret egg fallen from a tree (hatched - egg is empty)

Unfortunately when you have a crocodile park and a nesting zone in the trees above, there are often sad tales of untimely endings.  Both night herons and egrets nest here.  It is an amazing sight to watch them building nests and feeding young.  The noise is incredible, especially when the macaques try to raid the nests!  The birds all start to 'scream' and they dive bomb the monkeys.  Sometimes the birds win and sometimes not.

Snakes!

Today I got up at 5.30 am and took walk with a couple of local snake hunters.  They are approved by the powers that be to catch snakes and although I know very little about it, they apparently collect venom for anti venom.  They are licensed and have a strict protocol to follow - the big one is that they never kill the snakes.  They are captured and then released.  They are very protective of the snakes and go out of their way to ensure they live safely in the community.

We were out for about an hour this morning before we came across our first snake.  It was a very good introduction for me…

A baby Olive Keelback

We then walked another hour and a half or so before we came across our second snake.  And wow!  What a stunner!  This is one of India's four most venomous snakes and this was a beautiful example.

Spectacled Cobra in it's nest

One of the guides

Carrying it to somewhere safe to let go

The 'spectacles' that it takes it's name from

We let this big one go in a different location to where it was caught simply because there were a few local men watching as they caught it and the usual reaction to a snake in their field or surrounds is to kill it.  So it was carried some distance until we had no followers and in a quiet spot it was let go.

So even though we only saw 2 snakes, they were both incredible in their own ways.  I loved holding the little one.  It seemed quite calm and didn't struggle or complain at all, although I'm sure it was stressed to the max.  We let it go back where we found it and it went off like a robbers dog.  Faster then I could say 'good bye snake!'

Jaws III, a very big saltie

Jaws is the star attraction at MCBT and people come on Sunday to see him get fed.  He's about 17 feet long and chunky.  He doesn't venture out of his water that often when people are around, but when he does, he's very impressive.  Having seen Lolong last year and at 21 feet, he's hard to beat in terms of impressive, but Jaws III is pretty cool.

His favourite person feeds him while Colin Stevenson does a talk about Jaws III and crocodilians in general.  Jaws gets to eat lots of yummy meaty stuff after an obligatory walk around to show his impressive size.

I love crocs!

OK, so you already knew this, but having been at Madras Croc Bank now for 7 nights, I can honestly say, my love for crocs is doing nothing but growing!

Each day I get to walk around the enclosures and look at 18 of the 23 species still alive today.  Sometimes they're hiding and I don't seem them, sometimes they are all out basking so I see several.

There are always 100's of muggers (Crocodylus palustris) to be seen so no matte what, I get to watch them everyday. There are a couple of muggers of note. One I have seen every day I have been here. She sits where she built her nest and guards it with great maternal responsibility. She doesn't know there are no eggs in her nest though. There are too many muggers here so they cannot allow more to hatch at this point.

The other mugger of note, is a tiny wee thing about 2 years old.  It was probably missed when egg collections were done a couple of seasons ago so the lucky little blighter hatched and has survived to this point.  A year of so back there were 6 apparently.  Now there are probably only 2 left - the other one lives in a pipe and sits there basking with only his head out.  They are at high risk here with such large numbers of adult muggers in the enclosure and also with the nesting water birds living above.  But somehow this little fellow has beaten the odds so far and I see it basking at the end of the day in a spot near some tree roots.  This determined little croc deserves an award for bravery and canniness!

Brave little mugger 

I have fallen in love with the gharials (Gavialis gangeticus).  They are so incredibly unique - there is nothing in the world like them.  They are extremely shy and very wary of humans especially, which is a very good thing for such an endangered species.  There are many reasons this croc hasn't increased in numbers in the wild with al the support it gets, but too complicated to go into here.  Some political, some local communities, some logistical…

Male gharial underwater 

Feeding the gharials in the nursery is a highlight of my week.  I love to go in and throw the little fish to them.  I aim for the side of their snout and if my aim and their preparedness work right, they snap their head sideways and voila! a fish ends up in their teeth.  They manoeuvre the fish so it is head first (so the fins etc don't get stuck in their throat) and down it goes.

The little gharials are even shyer then the bigger ones - they are used to being pushed out when it comes to food especially so it's vital to ensure they get a good feed too.  They take a fish and climb back onto the land and eat it, then climb in again.  Very cute wee things.

Melting moments

I have been in Chennai, southern India (about 45 minutes south of Chennai) for 5 days and I cannot believe how hot it is!  The days are not as humid as the nights oddly.  In a way it is better that way as working in 96% humidity wouldn't be fun.  But then again, trying to sleep in 96% humidity is a challenge in itself.

But to be honest, although I moan about the heat, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now.  I am spending about 6-7 weeks as a volunteer at  Madras Crocodile Bank Trust.  It is an incredible place dedicated to the conservation and survival of reptiles  - especially crocodiles.  Hence me being here!

This morning I got to dig up a nest of eggs laid by a gharial.  I never thought I would have this sort of opportunity, and to be so hands on is just mind blowing!

This afternoon was not quite so glamourous (if collecting eggs could be called glam??).  We cleaned out an enclosure that has 6 turtles in it.  They are 2 different species and both endangered, one critically.  They were surprised to find their water disappearing, and while they could, they hid below in the dirty water.

We scrubbed and scrubbed until all the walls and the floor of the water area was clean.  There was a massive amount of algae growing so it was a big job.  We decided that if we did this every day we would look like muscle builders within a week or two!  This was definitely a melting moment in the afternoon heat!  The best part was getting in the cold shower afterwards and cleaning all the algae off myself!

Yesterday I got to feed a large pair of African slender snouted crocodiles.  They have been taught to come to the tapping of a stick while calling their names stick.  They touch the stick with their snout.  We then rub their nose with the stick and they open their mouth and we throw a fish in.  It's a pretty amazing experience!

Feeding the juveniles in the nursery is also exciting.  We start by sorting fish into sizes (I think there is about 500kg of fish??)  we get tiny fish for the babies and medium fish for the medium crocs and big fish for the big crocs and then the remainder gets thrown into the mugger enclosures and they finish it off!  We wash the fish and take it into the nursery and throw the fish to each gharial just beside their snout so they can grab it.  These guys have serious teeth!  But they are one of the most beautiful crocs in my eyes.

Butterfly Creek, Auckland

I had yet more need for cheering up so I emailed Butterfly Creek in south Auckland and asked if I could meet them and discuss crocodiles et al.

They were originally a butterfly house but expanded in about 2009 to include crocodiles - as you do!  I asked why crocs and they were after something different that hadn't been done before in NZ.  They certainly have something different!

Goldie and Scar are the 2 big boys, Goldie about 4.9 metres and Scar about 5 metres.  They also have 3 American Alligators and some baby salties.  They have a few other creatures but I confess, I didn't really notice them…

I got to ask lots of questions and learnt a lot about behind the scenes of a zoo.  

Really enjoyed myself!  Thanks very much to Amy and Paul.

Amy playing with Scar

Paul and one of the small salties

Besties having cuddles, so cute :)

American Alligator

Goldie

Scar, playtime

Hungry…  and focussed

Jumping

All those teeth!

Ready to jump

Newly hatched butterly

A day out in the Hauraki Gulf

I needed cheering up after several days of inaction in Auckland, so booked a dolphin and whale cruise on the Gulf.

It was a stunning day and looking out for signs of dolphins was fun.  Lots of bird life around and eventually lots of dolphins.  Sadly no whales but I was very happy to have seen my first penguins in the wild instead.

Rangitoto Island - the cloud was the only one in the sky!

Racing the boat

There was lots of jumping and showing off

Team racing

Single slalom

Show jumping

That little grey blip in front of the dolphin is a penguin!

There was a serious race for life going on here

I thought it was a goner until he did the scared bunny veer right trick

And swam off into the deep blue - safe for now.

Sheerwater

Gannet

Gannet