Are there any great West African dwarf crocodile exhibits?

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
snowleopard recently commented that the West African dwarf crocodile in the Sacramento Zoo reptile house is quite small. That species is in an exhibit space that was created in 1970 (originally for large constrictors like anaconda). The San Diego Zoo West African dwarf crocodile exhibit in the Monkey Trails complex is much newer (2005ish?), but equally small.

This makes me wonder, is it common practice to exhibit this species in quite small exhibits, or are these exhibits anomalous? Are there any really good exhibits for this species that people have seen, or for any of the smaller crocodilians for the matter (e.g., dwarf caimans)?
 
DavidBrown said:
snowleopard recently commented that the West African dwarf crocodile in the Sacramento Zoo reptile house is quite small. That species is in an exhibit space that was created in 1970 (originally for large constrictors like anaconda). The San Diego Zoo West African dwarf crocodile exhibit in the Monkey Trails complex is much newer (2005ish?), but equally small.

This makes me wonder, is it common practice to exhibit this species in quite small exhibits, or are these exhibits anomalous? Are there any really good exhibits for this species that people have seen, or for any of the smaller crocodilians for the matter (e.g., dwarf caimans)?
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Lincoln Park Zoo's dwarf croc exhibit in the Regenstein African Journey building is very nice.
 
I believe the one you are referring to in San Diego has slender snouted crocodile (which are actually larger than dwarf crocs), unless there is another even smaller dwarf croc exhibit attached to the turtles and snakes across from the above mentioned.

But no, it seems they do seem to get small exhibits. San Antonio (which I was at a few days ago) has one in their hippo building that is pretty good, but certainly not huge. Wildlife World Zoo has a pretty small one. For dwarf caimans, Reid Park is decent but not huge and Gladys Porter is pretty good size. Both of these are at least outdoors, so the animals have a more natural experience perhaps than those in indoor reptile houses.
 
Arizona Docent said:
I believe the one you are referring to in San Diego has slender snouted crocodile (which are actually larger than dwarf crocs), unless there is another even smaller dwarf croc exhibit attached to the turtles and snakes across from the above mentioned.
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The West African dwarf croc exhibit is across from the slender-snouted croc exhibit with the snake, lizard, and turtle exhibits. I assume that it is still there as I haven't been to the zoo in a year or so.
 
DavidBrown said:
The West African dwarf croc exhibit is across from the slender-snouted croc exhibit with the snake, lizard, and turtle exhibits. I assume that it is still there as I haven't been to the zoo in a year or so.
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It was there in November, and it holds juvenile dwarf crocodiles and East African black mud turtles. It is a very small space indeed.
 
I think we have a pretty good Dwarf Crocodile exhibit at Bristol. The pair have a pool comparable to one that they would use in the wild (they apparently avoid rivers which may hold Nile crocs) and it is shared with a variety of cichlids. They originally had Malawis, but they have removed most and the pool has breeding Lake Barombi cichlids from Cameroon.
 
once the San Diego Zoo completes the new Africa Rocks exhibit for the Dwarf Crocodiles, I feel like they will have one of the nicest
 
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