Crocodile Ranching’s a Snap, Expert Says

Crocodile ranching in Iceland, all things considered, would present a challenge, admits Harry Messel, a leading expert on the reptiles.

“It’ll be bloody difficult, no doubt about that,” Messel said, but he is delighted that a group in Iceland wrote to him recently to seek information on setting up a ranch, because it offers another chance to save crocs and their environment.

The burly, bearded Messel stood out among the scientists in business suits at a major international conference on conservation here. He wore the khaki shorts and shirt he wore when wading outback rivers of Australia for 17 years counting crocs.

A professor at the University of Sydney, he is the real-life version of Crocodile Dundee, the croc-hunting character portrayed by Australian film actor Paul Hogan.

For a conservationist concerned about reptiles whose skin is made into handbags, Messel has a unique sales line: “Buy a bag and save a croc.”

He is trying to persuade developing countries to turn their crocodile-infested swamps and tidal basins into ranches to provide an income and protect the environment.

Messel said he believes that crocodile ranching--which he distinguishes from farming--stops the hunting of wild crocodiles.

In ranching, a percentage of eggs and hatchlings is taken from nests in the wild and reared in pens until ready for sale. In crocodile farming, the beasts are bred and mated entirely in captivity to produce goods such as handbags and shoes.

“We are not looking on farming as having conservation merit,” Messel said. “What does have conservation merit is crocodile ranching, and that’s what marries up with conservation.”

In ranching, crocodiles are counted to determine how many eggs and hatchlings can be taken without harming the population.

“We support ranching through taking eggs from the wild for hatchlings,” he said. “We are against harvesting mature animals, and harvesting of females we are dead against.”

Mature males have been harvested in such developing African countries as Mozambique and Zambia, on a quota basis, until they have ranching programs in place.

“Local people get, say, $5, for an egg for doing nothing but protecting the crocodiles,” he said of ranching.

“Are they going to let them have that crocodile? . . . No, they’re going to protect that croc with their lives. They just gather the fruit every year and have to do nothing about it.

“Hundreds and hundreds of people are writing to us. You name it . . . all the developing countries. Even in Iceland they want to set up a crocodile ranch.”

He said crocodiles are one of the few animals with which what is called Sustained Yield Development will work.

“Much better to just go and gather the eggs in comfort, or (gather) little hatchlings, than go up to your backside in water trying to chase big ones,” Messel said.

Modern ranching methods also help, he said: “At one time, to get a four- to five-foot animal it took six to seven years. Now, with special foods, you can do it in 18 months to two years.”