Croc Bank

From February 10-16 as part of class we got to go to Madras Crocodile Bank Trust (Croc Bank or MCBT). This organization is a zoo focused on large reptiles and their conservation. Our days consisted of cleaning pens, presentation, and feeding the animals. It was really cool hopping into the crocodile enclosures, while visitors were watching, and cleaning out their pens. One of the days we spent the morning cleaning a pool in one of the big enclosures. It was intense because there were crocs all around us just watching us. While in the pens we also checked for nests and eggs. Croc Bank does not want to breed all their species of crocs so most of the eggs are destroyed.

My favorite job was feeding the iguanas and tortoises. The iguanas were so friendly and climbed all over us. We fed them tomatoes and grasses and sprayed down their cages. The tortoises looked like little old men, they were so cute! These tortoises were much smaller then the ones on the Galapagos but looked similar. We fed all the Berts grasses (all four had names ending in Bert). I literally got to hand feed one because they are used to people, we even got to pet them. The one I hand fed, Albert, let me scratch his chin; I think he really liked it. Their skin is tough and very wrinkly. I really enjoyed looking all these tortoises because of how social they are. The day we fed them I wore hot pink shorts, which kept catching their attention, and they would walk toward me and just stare at my shorts, it was a blast!

On one of our nights there we went to an enormous tree with a bat colony in it. The bats were huge too! They had a wingspan of 2-4 feet! We climbed about half way up the gigantic tree and watched the bats take off for the night it was spectacular! Right after we finished watching the bats we saw some boys playing volleyball so we played with them until dark. Seeing the bats take off, climbing a huge tree, and then playing some volleyball made for a fun night!

Our last day was pretty relaxing we went to Dakshin Chitra which was a culture/welcome center. We got henna and did some pottery. There were lots of local venders selling a variety of things. I was able to get some gift shopping done so that’s always a plus.