TRAINING CROCODILES

Shannon News, 27 July 1928, Page 2

TRAINING CROCODILES

HOW IT IS DONE.

There is no means of completely training crocodiles. The only way they can be made tractable is by constantly working with them (writes Captain Wall, a well-known French crocodile breeder, in the Daily Mail). Even then they will forget one in a very short while; For instance, once I have set my animals at liberty in their enclosure, at home it would be very dangerous for mo to approach them after they haxl been basking for a while in the sun. It is only when their skins begin to crack with heat and they are forced to retire fc> ' more sheltered spots that they become at all amenable. If you are attacked by a crocodile effective defence is to hit the animal sharply on the nose, where it is extremely sensitive. In the old days when the rivers of v America and India swarmed with these ugly-looking mSnsters, hunting them was an exceedingly dangerous enterprise. . Nowadays their capture is less hazardous. They are caught by means of a long and strong bar measuring about 10ft, at the end of which it attached a hook., When the crocodile has caught its teeth in the hook it is dragged to the surface and lassooed. - H crocodile will often consume 501 b jof meat at one meal, although it is fable to go without food for two or three months. Its diet usually includes the lungs and livers of horses and cattle, and sometimes fish. Being cannibals by nature, crocodiles will , also, consume their smaller fry. Crocodiles breed in the northern hemisphere during June and July. The female lays roughly from 50 to 60 comparatively small white eggs at the rate of one a minute. After the eggs have been laid the mother buries them under a slight layer of sand and foliage and leaves them there to incubate. Curiously enough, when the crocodile is caught wild it will always hibernate, whereas when born in captivity it will remain active throughout the winter. Crocodiles sometimes live to a very great age. There is a crocodile still living on a fara in the southern States of America which is reputed tp be over 800 years old. A- crocodile's age is determined by the width of its snout, which broadens a quarter of an inch every 50 years. The skin of a crocodile is, worth roughly from £3 to £5, f ; though it sometimes varies according to "the age of the animal. Only the skin covering ;he stomach is used.

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