"Nile crocodile is actually two species"

Really fascinating stuff.

They make mention of harvesting wild-caught Nile crocs for their skins. Now, American alligators and salt water crocs are relatively easy to farm.

Why are there no Nile croc farms in Africa? Is it a lack of funding and development, or are Nile crocs more difficult to breed in captivity, or is it something else entirely?
 
nanoboy said:
Really fascinating stuff.

They make mention of harvesting wild-caught Nile crocs for their skins. Now, American alligators and salt water crocs are relatively easy to farm.

Why are there no Nile croc farms in Africa? Is it a lack of funding and development, or are Nile crocs more difficult to breed in captivity, or is it something else entirely?
Click to expand...

Great question to which I don't entirely know the answer, but my guess would be 1. lack of local markets that would support them and 2. lack of infrastructure to transport the products to markets that would conceivably use them and thus not economically viable.
 
nanoboy said:
Really fascinating stuff.

They make mention of harvesting wild-caught Nile crocs for their skins. Now, American alligators and salt water crocs are relatively easy to farm.

Why are there no Nile croc farms in Africa? Is it a lack of funding and development, or are Nile crocs more difficult to breed in captivity, or is it something else entirely?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that there are many crocodile farms across Africa; I've heard of several in South Africa alone.
 
DavidBrown said:
Great question to which I don't entirely know the answer, but my guess would be 1. lack of local markets that would support them and 2. lack of infrastructure to transport the products to markets that would conceivably use them and thus not economically viable.
Click to expand...

Hmm... but there is clearly a market for them as they are presently being hunted for their skins. If there is infrastructure to transport perishables like fruit, veg, and meat to market (surely Africans eat?) then what extra infrastructure is needed for a crocodile farm, which in essence, is a farm?

Maybe this is a gap in the market that you and I can exploit. Let's open a croc farm in Africa!
 
devilfish said:
I'm pretty sure that there are many crocodile farms across Africa; I've heard of several in South Africa alone.
Click to expand...

Dammit! A google search has proven that croc farms do indeed exist already. I wonder who the self-employed poachers sell their skins to then? Maybe tourists at markets?
 
Probably because there is a lack of sustainable protein sources to feed the captive crocodiles in Africa compared to Asia and the Americas
 
nanoboy said:
Hmm... but there is clearly a market for them as they are presently being hunted for their skins. If there is infrastructure to transport perishables like fruit, veg, and meat to market (surely Africans eat?) then what extra infrastructure is needed for a crocodile farm, which in essence, is a farm?

Maybe this is a gap in the market that you and I can exploit. Let's open a croc farm in Africa!
Click to expand...

Here is a case study of crocodile farms vs. poaching in Tanzania:
Nile Crocodile Trade

Maybe there is a market opportunity there if we can simultaneously shut down poaching and build economically crocodile farms.

This was not how I was planning to spend my afternoon, but it is interesting...
 
DavidBrown said:
Here is a case study of crocodile farms vs. poaching in Tanzania:
Nile Crocodile Trade

Maybe there is a market opportunity there if we can simultaneously shut down poaching and build economically crocodile farms.

This was not how I was planning to spend my afternoon, but it is interesting...
Click to expand...

The wild-caught bird trade still flourishes even though many of the species are already in aviculture and clearly it is the same with Nile crocs. Well, there goes our business idea then.

On another note, I read some National Geographic article/s some years ago about desert crocs living in West Africa. I guess that those were the 'suchus'. I'll see if I can google the article/s.
 
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