South African Travels, Day 7

After another luxurious start to the day where we didn't have to be at breakfast until 7:30, we loaded up the van to head for the animals I was most looking forward to- CROCODILES!

Here's looking at you, Breakfast!

I know that Africa has lots of cool exotic wildlife, but for some reason, I would have been really disappointed if I hadn't gotten to work with a crocodile. Maybe it's because I'm a reptile fan, or maybe it's because I'm unexpectedly an adrenaline junky, but I was super excited when I found out we would be going to a crocodile research facility.

Before I get ahead of myself, this happened on the way to the crocodiles:

Where'd the trees go?

We were hurtling down a dirt road at probably around 60 MPH when suddenly Louis, who was driving us today, slammed on the brakes, causing all of us to fly forward in our seats. He came to a complete stop, got out of the van without a word, and walked back in the direction we had come. Upon returning, he presented us with this tiny chameleon, who he saw crossing the road. EAGLE EYES.

Seriously, I love reptiles

Apparently if you get caught with a chameleon as a pet in Africa, you get, like, killed or something. That may not be quite what Louis said, but the consequences would be dire. So we merely scooped this guy up and gave him a ride to the trees at the crocodile place (chameleon: "Thanks").

We arrived, and the set up was basically someone's house with a couple of small enclosures in the yard. Each enclosure had a pool in it. The enclosure we would be hanging out in had about 12 - 15 crocs of various sizes living in it.

And I wouldn't be true to myself if I didn't mention the horses that lived there. And show you a picture:

I bet these horses can move pretty fast.

We met up with the guy who took care of the crocs (who's name, alas, I never caught, so I will call him Mr. Crocodile), and he was about as cool as Conrad. You would have to be pretty cool to be able to just walk through a group of crocodiles without a care. Or something.

"This is the safer end. Notice I did not say "safe"."

We all waltzed into the enclosure, some with larger feelings of trepidation than others. Our first order of business was to sedate the bigger crocodiles with a pole syringe. This involved getting pretty close to the croc, finding the right spot on its tail, and jabbing the needle into it with enough force to inject all of the sedative. PS, the crocs jumped and snapped at you as soon as they were jabbed.

Also, crocodiles hiss. And it's pretty chilling.

A couple of people got started with their assigned crocodiles, and then it was Dr. Culp's turn. She got one of the nastier-tempered guys. When she stuck him, her needle bent, so it didn't get the full dose... meaning it would have to be done again, and now it was angrier than it had been originally. So this happened:

Dr: Culp: "Kristin, would you like to finish off the one I just did?"
Me: "Yeah!"
Dr. Culp: "You would? You want to do it?"
Me: "Definitely!"

followed shortly by:

Now, just hold still...

Kristin Sedating Crocodile

(Totally was ready to use the pole for defense if I needed to.) If the link doesn't work, it's on my facebook page. Add me!


After injecting the crocodiles, we had to wait about 45 minutes for the sedation to take effect. And then the real fun started.

Not yet sedated

A couple of the men wrangled two of the smaller crocodiles out and taped their mouths shut. Then it was time to start tackling the bigger guys.

Yes, tackling. Definition: say a lot of prayers, suck in a big breath to calm your shaking appendages, throw yourself down onto a crocodile, and hope that it doesn't see you coming first.

A couple of men exuberantly volunteered to go first. While they tackled, taped, and moved out their crocodiles to where they could be worked on (blood drawn, measured, weighed, and sexed), a couple of people practiced tackling the smaller, unsedated crocodiles in preparation for the larger ones. It had just become my turn to practice when I heard, "Kristin! Come get your crocodile!"

I am pretty sure I blanched; the only excuse I could think of was, "But I haven't practiced on the smaller one yet!" My pleas fell on deaf ears, however. I made my way into the enclosure to the sound of a death knell (possibly just in my head) and slunk over to my crocodile. He at least had something covering his eyes (probably a clothing remnant from the last person that had tried to tackle him). Mr. Crocodile showed me where to stand and informed me to not hesitate, or else I would get hurt.

K. Got it.

I counted to 3, and then threw myself on top of the crocodile, using my hands and body weight to shove his head to the ground. Crocodiles do not have strong opening muscles in their mouths- only shutting- so it is possible to hold their mouths closed. As soon as I had his head pressed to the ground and was confident he wasn't going to throw me off, the blindfold was pulled off, and I worked my hands down his snout, making sure a) I was holding it closed and b) I wasn't accidentally working my fingers into his mouth instead. Especially considering the fact that he was hissing and growling at me.

Too close!

I help his mouth closed while they taped it shut, and then I held his eyes closed while they taped over them. We then loaded him up on a board and carried him out to be measured like the others. And by the way, a sedated crocodile is still quite capable of moving and snapping his mouth. He's just a little more sluggish.

This whole time, the two unsedated crocodiles were just out and about. While everyone else was occupied, I walked up to one and tapped its tail with my boot. It whipped around so fast that, had its mouth not been taped, I probably would have lost a foot. I just laughed at it like a cocky jerk. Had it been tape-free, however, I probably would have wet my pants.

This crocodile did not appreciate the idea of being blindfolded

For the most part, I stood by and watched the others work on the crocodiles... until Dr. Derr called me over to draw blood on one. I sat on its back like it was a horse and Mr. Crocodile helped me find the vein in its head. And then I drew blood. From a freakin' crocodile.

After we were finished working with them, we moved them back into their enclosure. But here we encountered an interesting conundrum: the crocodiles had to be placed in the shade so that they didn't fry, and there was only one shady place. Meaning that we had to set them right next to each other. And then- oh yeah- remove the tape holding their mouths shut.

We had to strategically remove tape so that someone did not get trapped in a corner, surrounded by free crocodiles. Still, when I was called in to release mine, knowing that only a couple of feet away lied some of its tape-less brethren, I was shaking so hard that Mr. Crocodile had to help me untape it. And then I jumped off it so fast, I probably could have won an Olympic medal in something.

Fortunately nobody, including Mr. Crocodile and Louis, who were quite at home amongst the toothy beasts, got hurt, and we packed everything up to head back home.

On the way, we stopped at a shopping mall to eat the lunch that Michelle had packed us. While we were sitting, we received a call that one of the breeding reservations had a sick wild dog that needed to be looked at. So, we piled back in and headed to the park, where we had to wait at the entrance for our access to arrive.

On the way, we ran across a local man selling sling shots, and the guys in our group about bought him out. So, since we had a little free time while waiting, they all set up a can and practiced using them. Rebecca and I, horse girls that we are, went over and visited the horses that were living right at the entrance of the park:

Boys will be boys

Side note: the horses were covered in ticks. I don't think Chica would like Africa very much.

When we finally got back to the wild dog, the day quickly got even better- for suddenly the guide turned towards the pen next to the dog pen and yelled (in a very high-pitched voice) "Roscoe! Borris!" and two hyenas suddenly appeared. They knew it was not dinner time yet, so they were pretty tentative, but I was determined to get a good picture of them.

So spotty

We discovered that we could walk down the road a bit and get closer to them, but they were pretty skittish around all of the people. Most of the vets got bored and wandered back, but Pat and I stayed put, and our patience was rewarded.

A liiittle creepy

I managed to coax one of them up pretty close to me, where he giggled (!!) before jumping back into the bushes.

He he he

Eventually, Pat and I decided to join the others, and I noticed as we walked away that we were being stalked.

Quickly, while their backs are turned!

At some point, while I was playing with the hyenas, apparently the rest of the group was taking pictures of a lion and lioness that had come up to see what the commotion was. ALAS I missed them. I had no idea they were even there until we got back and were looking at everyone's pictures -face palm-.

We got back to the wild dog, who was very sick indeed- so much so that it didn't even react when Louis walked up to it and stuck it with a pole syringe. Once it was sedated, they lifted it up onto a flat surface to try and figure out what was going on with it.

Poor thing

I'm not sure what the outcome was- terms like "rabies", "distemper", and even "cancer" were tossed around- but I wish the guy the best.

When we left, it was getting into the evening, so we decided to go back home and have a "sundowner" on top of the mountain- basically, sit and watch the absolutely gorgeous sunset that Africa offered, something we had not gotten to do yet (and something I was really looking forward to before the trip). We headed up the mountain and were rewarded by this sight:

"This is where you wanted us, yes?"

 They were nice enough to stick around so that we could take pictures like this:

The most African of the pictures

There was some confusion on someone's part- certainly not mine- about which direction to look to find the sun, before this person realized that if she would just turn around, she would instantly be blinded by the sun as it sank. Ahem. But the sunset was spectacular, as hoped for, and it was a beautiful end to our last day.

In living color

The view

As it got dark, we stuck around and socialized with everyone. Louis brought his fiance, Antoinette, and she and I hit it off instantly. Turns out she owns a horse as well, so maybe someday she can come visit and ride with me! OR, even better, I can go back to Africa!

Heath took some awesome photos of the stars, and he set up some totally cool shots of us with the Southern Cross.

Southern Hemisphere stars

I was sad to go to bed that night, knowing that we would be leaving the next day. I could have stayed longer; I was not in the least bit ready to return. Our time seemed to pass so quickly, and I couldn't believe that only a week ago, on my birthday, I had been packing to go on this trip.

At least the next morning we had one more lesson to look forward to!

Photo credit: Credit for group photo with crocs and slingshot photo belong to Dr. Jim Derr . Credit for the photo of me sedating the croc and the Southern Cross photo belongs to Heath Culp of Poodledog Productions. Everything else is mine.