Crocodile Conservation Volunteer Project

Well, today is the last day of my time at Croc Bank. Looking back over the past 9 weeks it is impossible to pick out a favourite moment. So I've picked out a few to reminisce over.The only venomous snake kept in Croc Bank is the Albino Cobra. Due to his weak immune system he is kept off-exhibit in a (sterile as possible) box. He also has a variety of lights above the box which are turned on and off, as normal sunlight would burn him.

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The rainy spell we have been having at Croc Bank has stopped... for now. The weather is back to the usual sweltering midday sun with the evenings and mornings being bearable. Most of my time at the moment seems to have been spent baking sand. Now that all the wood is dry once again all the old sand from the nursery bath tubs and terrariums has to be removed and heated over a fire to sterilize it.One such terrarium is used to house a young Indian Rock Python in the Young Reptiles Exhibit everyday.

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The major highlight of this week was on Friday, when Croc Bank caught and crated some crocodilians to be sent to a zoo in the Czech Republic. The crocodilians in question were juvenile gharials, juvenile morelet's, muggers and two full grown gharials. I got up early at six o'clock but even then the young gharials and the muggers had already been caught. I was able to help pin down the morelet's whilst they were tagged however.

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Well, the rainy season has arrived in Tamil Nadu. I had always thought that the whole of India had the monsoon earlier in the year but I should have delved into the matter a little deeper. I was told by a resident that it tends to be rainy from now until the middle of December. The upside of this is that the temperature has dropped from a sweltering 32C during the day to a balmy 26C. However it does mean that I have to sprint from building to building to try and get wet as little as possible.

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I am now well settled into my daily routine here. Before breakfast I help to clean out the baby reptiles. After breakfast there are usually some general tasks to be carried out. Examples include, baking sand for the terrariums, cleaning out some of the larger enclosures and cleaning algae off the turtles. I then take a quick lunch before patrolling the park for an hour whilst the regular staff have lunch. Recently I have started to help with the educational snake talks on the young rock pythons.

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There's a huge variety of things which I've been helping with over the past week. Every morning before breakfast I help to clean out the baby tortoises, turtles and crocodiles. What happens after breakfast has so far been different almost everyday, but it's only been a week so things haven't had time to repeat themselves.On Monday I scrubbed out ponds. Then in the afternoon I helped sort fish for the juvenile gharials, and then helped feed them.

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India is incredible and I am having a fantastic time. I have a long list of things I have done, but some are giving eye drops and tablets to tortoises and turtles, cleaning out a 16ft saltwater crocodiles pen (while he was in it) who is called jaws, and also helping to design a enclosure for frogs which they are hoping to build soon. Everyone is very friendly. I'm attaching two photos with this blog.

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Last Sunday evening was as usual my trip to 'Selomonis' house for dinner (Selomonis is one the Keepers at the Crocodile Bank), only this week I was not to go to his house but to a wedding. He drove me by motor bike (as with all the trips I have taken on motor bike you may be worried to hear that at no time have I worn leather or helmet) to a little side street on the outskirts of Chennai, this little alleyway led to two tiny house where disorganized chaos was taking place.

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I went to Chengalputt with my friend Dinesh to visit his family. After setting off at 6.30am, we arrived in Chengal and went off to his Grandmas' place. When I got there I was greeted by an army of faces - the grandfather, grandmother, auntie, uncle, 6 cousins (all under 10) and brother of Dinesh. The smallest cousin was about a year old, in the western world he would be given a disposable nappy but this is India and only the middle and upper classes can afford them.

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