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Late last summer, a crocodile ate 80-year-old Lars Liedegren’s left arm in Skansen. This led to a reconstruction and the two crocodiles Hillary and Castro had to be temporarily moved to the Tropicarium in Kolmården.
Surprisingly enough Hillary laid eggs during her exile, but put them in the water, forcing the guards to rake them up and place them in a hatchery. All ten have passed for their first time in the so-called nursery and are now available for visitors to view.
– It feels amazing in the conditions we had. It’s a lot of fun, especially since it’s an endangered species. Exactly how many there are is unclear because they hybridize with other crocodiles, that is, they mate with others and thus become extinct, says Tropicarium CEO Rickard Sjödén.
He says that Cuban crocodiles are very aggressive and that they are one of the few animals that actually see humans as prey. The ten newborn crocodiles are still only 6 inches long, but you can already see that they jump and try to attack basically anything that moves.
Kolmården can keep the Cuban crocodile cubs as a thank you for hosting Hillary and Castro during the renovation of the Skansen Aquarium.
Photo: Kolmården
Hillary and Castro were born in 1974 and originally belonged to Cuban President Fidel Castro. At one point, he donated them to cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov, who was president of the Soviet-Cuban Friendship Association, but when he brought them from Havana to Moscow, his wife finally got tired of having reptiles in the bathtub, says Jonas Wahlström of Skansen. -Akvariet.
– He delivered them to the Moscow Zoo and in 1981 I was there. They would rebuild their terrarium and they asked me if I wanted to take care of them, which I obviously wanted because it’s the rarest crocodile in the world, says Jonas Wahlström, who adds that there will be about one litter per year.
– We have been able to spread them to zoos around the world, especially to Americans. The United States has strict embargoes against Cuban products, that is, these communist crocodiles are not allowed, but their offspring that have been hatched in Sweden are considered only socialists or bourgeois and are therefore welcomed by the Fish and Wildlife Service of United States.
Cuban crocodiles become usually around 2.5 meters in adulthood and live in the wild today only in the Zapata swamp on the Cuban Isle of Youth. Jonas Wahlström estimates that there are around a hundred purebred individuals and as recently as two years ago he and his daughter traveled to Cuba to deliver ten pieces so that the species could obtain new blood.
– Crocodiles are a giant thing in Cuba. The last time Fidel Castro appeared in public was when, at 89, he looked at his “grandchildren,” as he called them. They are also in Kolmården now and you can keep them as a thank you for showing up when we rebuild, says Jonas Wahlström.
Read more: The crocodile in Skansen took him by the arm: “I saw it in my eyes”
