To Broome and Back!: Day 72. Malcolm Douglas Wildlife Centre. 22/07/2015

Todays plan was to visit Terry (owner of fishing boat John was on yesterday) to deliver a bottle of Whiskey as a thank you gift. Terry has a very lovely home in Broome. John and I both were captivated by Terry’s home and we spent an hour having a morning coffee with Terry and his wife Helen and their friends Peter and his wife Glenis.

We returned to camp to have an early lunch so we could fit in a tour of the Malcolm Douglas Wildlife Centre about 12 kms out of town. We arrived at the Centre and had to wait for the opening time of 2 p.m. The Wildlife park is in a very lovely setting, plenty of trees and well laid out tracks all with very informative signs indicating all the types of crocodiles, birds, dingoes, kangaroos, and emus and lizards.

As we entered the park we were immediately amongst the crocodiles. These huge beasts were lazing in the sun around their lake. The crocs live in reasonable harmony in this huge lake and we were told that they all were born in captivity about 30 years ago. We strolled around the park familiarising ourselves with the crocs lurking in various billabongs and lakes and admiring the beautiful birds on display. We saw the Barking Owl that really does sound like a barking dog, parrots, varieties of cockatoos such as very large red-tailed black cockatoos, a local kookaburra that is quite different to the variety we see in Victoria. The dingo looked fat compared to those in the wild and he appeared quite tame - not be trusted though.
We were instructed to return to the entrance to listen to a talk on crocodiles and feel and photograph baby crocs before following the Rangers as they fed the crocodiles and listened to the explanations about the various crocs housed there. Crocs can live fro 70-100 years in the wild and those in captivity can live for 120 years. They have very small brains about the size of a thumb nail and eat very little. Some have been known to eat only twice a year and then only a very small amount. The male crocs in ponds on their own or in the company of a female all had names, such as Evil Eye, Grey Ghost, Charger, The Star, Shorty, Cranky, Maniac (reported by Malcolm Douglas to be the most dangerous croc he has). The largest croc kept in the park is a 5 metre croc named Bluey and he was trapped in the Victoria River in the Northern Territory after killing a horse. Another called the Red Baron was trapped in Wyndham, and Zooey, a 4.5 metre croc lived for 20 years in the Perth Zoo before coming to Broome in 1998 and it is thought that Zooey is at least 50-60 years old.

An interesting fact about crocodiles is that if they get injured or loose a limb in a fight, they can slow their heart rate to such an extent that the blood loss is minimal and they have miraculous healing properties in their blood that repairs the wounds very quickly. Crocs have been known to survive the loss of several limbs at the one time but continue to survive and live normally. We also saw a lake that had a number of male Alligators imported from the United States and the differences between them and our crocs was explained and demonstrated. They have a more rounded snout and longer legs and are not as ferocious as our crocs. They also have a different jaw structure and their teeth clamp in a different manner. Female alligators are not allowed in the country so there is no way they can breed if any escape. Our crocodile would kill an alligator if they were to meet.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to see these huge saltwater crocodiles and come away knowing a little more about these creatures.

We returned to the caravan park to prepare a barbecue for our guests tonight Col and Anne, fellow residents at Dingley Village. They are also holidaying in Broome so it was a good chance to catch up.