Crocodiles go hungry due to shortage of tourists

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Passing down an iron-fenced corridor, Jemari pushes a wheeled cart full of raw chicken meat. Reaching a safe spot, he pours out the meat into a large pool and watches the water churn as hundreds of crocodiles fight over their lunch.

As more of the lizards swim to the spot, the battle in the water becomes more frenzied. But while local tourists laugh and clap their hands, Jemari shakes his head.

What Jemari knows that the visitors don't is that the Asam Kumbang Crocodile Breeding Farm in Medan cannot afford enough meat for the beasts. While he tries to distribute the food as evenly as he can, it is not enough and the normal skirmishing between the animals is becoming intense and more frequently fatal.

"We can only provide one ton of chicken meat a day for the crocodiles. It is far from enough as ideally; we should provide them with three tons a day for the thousands of crocodiles being bred here," said Jemari, who has been working at the center for 15 years.

Farm owner Lo Tham Muk, said feeding the crocodiles had been his main concern since establishing his business in the late 1950s.

"They have bred rapidly. I started with 12 crocodiles in 1959 and now the numbers are in the thousands," Lo said.

Initially breeding the beasts as a hobby and then for profit, a government ban on the sale of the animals means he now relies completely on tourism.

"I get the money only from the entrance tickets. Adults are charged Rp 4,000 and children are Rp 3,000," Lo said.

Lo spends more than Rp 500,000 (US$52) a day for one ton of chicken meat. Weekdays are generally slow for the farm, with only a handful of visitors, and while he had hundreds in the weekends, including a number of overseas tourists, he says the money does not cover his costs.

Travel warnings and terrorist attacks in Indonesia have not helped his business, which has been listed by local government as an official Medan tourist site since 1982. Many of the foreign tourists he now gets come from southeast Asia -- Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Crocodiles are big breeders and with an estimated 2,700 animals -- the eldest a six-meter 47-year-old -- Lo says he now has to destroy at least 5,000 crocodile eggs a year.

The 79-year-old said the farm needed government and investor support to maintain and develop it as a tourist attraction.

"I hope that donors, including the government, could contribute some money so that it can help us run the farm."