Crocodile Farm

One of the popular destinations in Puerto Princesa aside from the Underground River is the crocodile farm in Barangay Irawan, located 13 kilometers away from the city towards southern Palawan. Once a joint crocodile conservation facility of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Japan International Cooperation (JICA),   the crocodile conservation facility called the RP-Japan Crocodile Farming Institute is now called the Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center (PWRCC). 

 

So what is in store in the wildlife and rescue center to visitors? Of course, you will get to see the two kinds of crocodiles that can be found in the Philippines, namely the aggressive and man-eating saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) and the more docile one, the Philippine freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus mindorensis). 

The man-eating saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) floats like a log in the river.

Although considered docile, the freshwater crocodile can also be aggressive during the egg incubation period in May or June each year. I worked in this facility for almost eight years and I was actually chased by the freshwater crocodile when I was trying to measure the temperature of its nest as part of my study. I entered one of the pens where the crocodile watches its nest and placed the thermistor inside the nest. Suddenly, it lunged towards me and I have to scamper away to safety in the elevated bridge using a ladder. I almost became a victim of a 10 foot female freshwater crocodile!

 

You will have to pay a small entrance fee in their business office before you enter the facility. An employee will first brief everyone in front of a 17.5 meter skeleton of a saltwater crocodile that once unwittingly mistook a man for its prey. You can take pictures of both the skeleton and the leather of that large crocodile at the backdrop. A few meters away, you will get to see a large skeleton of a whale shark, within the same hallway.

 

After the briefing, you will be led to the rearing area of the juvenile crocodiles (less than one meter) and take close up pictures of both species of crocodiles. You will also be able to take pictures to your heart's with you holding the crocodile near the entrance of the facility. They appear to be docile but just watch out for the teeth. They are as sharp as a razor blade. Both sides of the teeth of the crocodile have sharp, elevated portion unlike the teeth of other animals. These structures are used by crocodiles in tearing their prey.

 

If you want to know more about these man-eating crocodiles which survived almost unchanged in form since the age of the dinosaurs, you may read my article in another site here. Crocodiles are not really that voracious. They only enough to live and can reduce their heartbeat to just one in a minute. To know more about the story of a recent crocodile attack in southern Palawan, you may read my post here.