Mega crocodile farm, where 110-year-old ‘Daddy’ croc lives

Nyali MP and a Crocodile farmer Hezron Awiti forces one of the crocodiles to the pool at Mamba Village in Mombasa County on Tuesday 10th November 2015. Photo/Kelvin Karani

 

An imposing eight metre long crocodile sculpture lies, mouth wide open, off Mombasa’s Links Road in the affluent Nyali estate signifying an important history of a 44-year-old Mamba Crocodile Farm in Mombasa.

The 17-acre farm in Mombasa, is home to a crocodile named Big Daddy, a man eating monster aged over 110 years, billed as one of the oldest crocodiles on earth.

Weighing 800 kilos and five metres long, Daddy is one of the 12,000 crocodiles reared at one of Kenya’s biggest crocodile farms, established in 1972.

Crocodile farming has gained acceptance in parts of Coast as an ingenious way of raking in money but the trade is not for the faint hearted.

Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the farm’s official accounts indicate that Daddy killed five people in River Tana before it was transferred to Mamba Crocodile farm.

Daddy’s aggressiveness is evident as some of the crocodiles have broken jaws while others are tailless as a result of his attacks.

Deadly reptiles

The farm has 21 ponds, each measuring about 50x100 feet for the crocodiles. One of the pond is dedicated to Daddy where he stays with his two ‘wives’ aged 35 and 40 years.

“Big Daddy is the oldest male crocodile in the world according to several journals. It is the deadliest reptile in the farm and was brought here in 1986 from River Tana where it had killed five people,” says Hezron Awiti the farm owner.

Mr Awiti, who is also the Member of Parliament for Nyali, says Daddy attracts hundreds of tourists who love to watch him as he feeds.

He says for 44 years, the farm has domesticated the deadly reptiles making the project a profitable venture thanks to the ever-growing demand for crocodile skin.

Awiti says he established the farm in Mombasa owing to the area’s temperature given that crocodiles do well in temperatures above 30 degrees.

“This area was initially a quarry and a dumping site before it was converted to conservation area for the reptiles by USAid and an American Insurance. I later teamed up with an Israel investor and bought it,” explains Awiti.

In 1995, Awiti says he bought all shares from the Israel investor and now solely owns the farm worth Sh250 million.

“In 1995, the investor sold to me all his shares and I’ve since transformed the farm from just a museum and tourism attraction site to a money minting venture. We nurtured these reptiles and either sell hatchlings to other farmers or other products across the world,” says Mr Awiti.

The farm breeds crocodiles using an incubator where they put the eggs collected to hatch. At the incubator they can determine the sex of the crocodiles by controlling the temperature.

An incubator at the 30 degrees and below produces a female crocodile but the temperature of between 32 degrees and 33 degrees produces male crocodiles.

Pond number 6 has 1,200 crocs, pond 7 has 1,000 crocs, pond 9, 1,200 crocs, pond 10 has 960 crocodiles and pond 11 has 620. Other ponds are pond 12 which has 830 crocodiles pond E has 1,000, pond B1 has 1,910 while B2 has 670 crocodiles.

In total there are 7,400 crocodiles aged between 1 and 13 years classified as growers in 11 ponds.

Skin is everything

Six other ponds keep 1,298 parents aged 13 years and above while the other three ponds are dedicated to over 1,200 hatchlings aged one year and below.

“The eggs are usually incubated at 28-29 degrees, with those at 28 degrees hatching into males and those at 29 degree hatching into females. But we prefer male crocodiles because they are usually bigger than the females,” says Mr Aggrey Lukwa, the farm supervisor.

Crocodiles at the farm lay over 14,000 eggs a year and although they are edible, the farm does not sell for consumption.

He says their line of business is to hatch them then later sell the hatchlings. One crocodile aged between four to five years is sold at Sh20,000 while the one aged 13 years fetches between Sh40,000 and Sh50,000 depending on the length and health of the skin.

High end clients

“We have supplied hatchlings to many crocodile farms in the region and beyond. So we do not encourage eating of the eggs although they make a good delicacy just like chicken eggs. But for the crocodile egg, it can only be eaten within four days after it is laid otherwise it can be poisonous,” says Lukwa.

The female crocodiles at the farm lay between seven to 77 eggs in one season. Hatching an egg takes place within 30 or 40 minutes.

The farm slaughters crocodiles aged four to five years because at that age, their meat is tender and skin is in good condition.

The farm sells crocodile meat at its restaurant — Mamba Village and Restaurant — and also to local high-end hotels and the export market.

Currently, the farm sells a kilo of crocodile meat at its restaurant for Sh1,000, to suppliers at Sh1,500 per a kilo. It also sells the meat to popular tourists’ hotels at the coast. Crocodile meat tastes like pork or fish and it is even crisped.

It is popular to high-end customers because like chicken and fish it is classified as white meat. Lukwa says one has to take extra caution when slaughtering the reptile because the bile is poisonous.

However, some animal experts dispute the notion that the croc bile is poisonous.

Crocodiles reach the culling age at four to five years, says Lukwa. At this age the farm slaughters them for sale.

The farm slaughters between 1,000 and 1,800 crocodiles a year and preserve the skins four degrees centigrade. Unlike conventional domesticated animals which are raised for their meat and skin is a by-product, crocs are raised for their skin, and the meat is a by-product.

“The skin is sold according to the belly width. The international market price have dropped compared to five years ago,” said Awiti adding that exporting the skins has become challenging due to the financial crisis facing many European nations.

Awiti said a centimetre of first grade skin (top quality) of the reptile is sold at Sh309 down from Sh618 it fetched five years ago in the international market.

For the skin to fetch good prices it should be unblemished and high quality to get its and that if it has stains then the prices could plummet further.