i visited this place and spoke to this guy. he said that the two infant caimen he has are very tame as they were hand reared. he then told me that next year he will be taping their mouths for the petting.
i hate the way people use the word hand reared for reptiles, ive heard keepers say "this boa is tame as it was hand reared", in my mind the only animals that can be handreared are mammals and birds as the keeper takes the actual role of the mother and the animal imprints upon them, a reptile will not imprint but can be tamed with handling so the keeper should have said "this boa is tame as it has been handled from a young age.
either way i would never trust a crocodilian of any age to be stroked with its mouth open like that!
stu
I dont have any issues with what he is doing here. I work with saltwater crocs of a similar size and smaller and we dont tape their mouths and have never had any issues. As long as you establish with the public what is going on first and set solid ground rules, he also has the mouth facing towards him so if any one gets bitten its him and the row of chairs there will also help him to control the crowd. Crocs i find thrash alot when your getting them out and putting them back in to enclosures but while their out conditioned animals are generally very quite
