One of Crocworld Conservation Centre’s most famous residents will be back on display.
Norris the Stork is being reintroduced to his mate in the hope of producing more Marabou Storks at the Scottburgh based centre. This is one of Crocworld’s many breeding programmes which are instrumental in furthering the genetic diversity of a threatened species.
Norris has shown significant success in the programme, fathering a number of chicks over the years, including two last year.
Crocworld’s animal curator, Busani Mthiyane, said: “We are patiently monitoring and observing his behaviour towards his mates. The introduction of this Marabou stork comes with the intention of increasing their breeding rate as we now have two males and one female on display.”
Marabou Storks breed during the dry season only and play an important role in the ecosystem by scavenging on carcasses.
In another successful breeding operation, 21 little yellow anacondas were born at the centre.
These are the first of their kind to be born in one of the centre’s breeding programmes, where they will be kept safe until they’re ready to move on to another conservation facility.
Mthiyane said that these were very interesting reptiles that give birth to live young, and are a lot smaller than their green anaconda cousins, with males growing up to 2.4 metres in length.
“Yellow anacondas are solitary and territorial; are excellent swimmers and spend a lot of time in or near water; and are ambush predators, lying in wait for their prey to come close before striking,” he said.
“We encourage visitors to come to Crocworld Conservation Centre to view these incredible creatures.”
Other interesting residents at Crocworld are 124-year-old Henry the Nile crocodile, his best friend and fellow Nile legend, Colgate, as well as many other reptile and bird species.
For more information about the many conservation efforts at Crocworld, visit www.crocworld.co.za or ‘Crocworld Conservation Centre’ on Facebook.