We're currently 3 weeks into April and CAKES' Chinese Alligator breeding season is in full swing, and we're feeling very hopeful this time round.
Unfortunatey, although we had some breeding last year, we didn't get any eggs
This year, we've re-introduced Shaun Jnr, a male Chinese Sinensis which we've loaned from Crocodiles of the World. This was a pairing that we did back in 2018, and although they did not produce any eggs for us, the pair got on very well. Their interaction was great, and we witnessed several mating attempts.
Whilst we are currently only at the beginning of the breeding season for 2019, we have 2 pairs actively mating at this moment in time.
In the next two weeks, we will introduce another of our females to a male, which have got on well during previous mating attempts.
We believe the lack of a production of eggs in last year's breeding season means we needed to make some changes this year to their enclosures.
We've now given each enclosure a make-over which includes the following:
Increasing enclosure space
We've doubled the enclosure size for each breeding pair, by usung the space that isn't currenty used by the females that we have loaned to Crocodiles of the World.
The benefit to this is that there is a second pond, more land mass and tunnels that either of the pair may use freely if they feel that they need some time alone.
Added more privacy
Research shows that more nests were built in areas of canopy and undergrowth that gave lots of consealant and privacy
We've incorporated this into our enclosures by providing more consealment and privacy through planting.
Ensure no disturbance
This season, we have decided that the only time we enter any of our enclosures is to feed our Alligators.
The purpose of this is to make them feel totally secure within their environment and not to make them feel threatened or disturbed by us.
We're really focusing on creating an environment to make our Alligators feel as natural as possible, as if they were in the wild without any human disturbance at all.