I love my job. I hope you can say the same thing about your place of employment but I really do like this job. Not since my job working at a ski resort in Colorado have I been paid for doing something I would most likely do for free. Sure, I endured days when I thought my toes were literally frozen and the snow report called for icy conditions and wind, but there were also days when I got to work with my friend Will and we'd ski backwards all day and work on our 360's and I'd tell him as we got back on the chairlift, "Thank you so much for getting me this job!"
Similarly here at the farm I often have my hands around a broom handle or elbow deep in rotting chicken heads more often that I do handling crocodiles, but that's just it... I do get to handle crocodiles! Every once in awhile back at my apartment, I reflect on the day and I have to laugh at the day's events. Earlier this week I willingly tried to get a fifteen foot long crocodile to chase me and I never thought twice about it. Yesterday I helped a baby dinosaur hatch from it's egg. I understand that's not normal!
I've arrived in the middle of nesting season when the females are laying their eggs. Over the period of a few weeks the female will build a nest of sand, dirt and vegetation to lay her eggs in. Once the eggs are laid she covers them up and guards the nest until they hatch. Once we think a female has laid, we go in and collect the eggs from the nest and put them into an incubator.
Raiding nests can get exciting as the females are very protective and usually need to be caught and tied up so we can check the nest in relative safety. Sometimes the female will be in the water in which we can't see her or maybe the male will come over to chase us off his territory. In any circumstance there is potential for danger and excitement.
My usual duties have varied from simply spectating, holding the rope which is tied to the female while she's tied up or distracting the male crocodile while people are in the pen. In nearly every circumstance I'm always on the outside of the fence. This week was my big debut. While we were raiding a particular nest the female retreated into the water unable to be caught. We estimated we had close to ten minutes before she would come back out. While Simmo distracted the male, Grabs stood between the nest and the water so I could collect the eggs!
Seventy-four beautiful white ovals that sounded like glass when they touched each other, and seemed just as fragile as I took them from the nest, marked the tops with a pencil where the embryo will have attached and placed them into the bucket. The guys had told me before about the adrenaline rush you get while you're in the pen, making you oblivious to the mozzies biting you, but I didn't experience that. I wasn't scared or nervous, I didn't feel a rush of adrenaline. I was just plain giddy with excitement. I couldn't believe I was finally in there doing what I'd been longing to do from the other side of the fence. It was great!
The fun didn't stop there. As we were moving crocodiles from one pen to another, my roomate Ben was bitten on the leg by a three footer. It let us all realize just how potentially dangerous even some of the smallest crocodiles on the farm can be. Twelve stitches later he was back at work and just to make sure he didn't forget the severity of the experience we had him clean and prepare teeth for the next two days. It has been raining heavily for the last two weeks which has stirred up the crocodiles. We had a few escapees which had to be caught and put back in their pens. After a few days all the crocodiles had been accounted for. I'm ready for the sun to come back out after all this flooding, mud and overcast skies.
It seems like you can't go too long here without some sort of animal encounter outside of the farm. On more than one occasion there have been pillowcases laying in the break room with pythons inside that people have brought to work to share with everyone. Unidentified geckos go home in sandwich containers to be identified and then released. Simmo stopped by our house late one night with a brown bag in his hand and a scaly tail sticking out the top. It was a frilled lizard that had been run over. I didn't know they had them in this area but I was very happy he brought it out for me to see. On the way home we passed an echidna crossing the road. Cute little creatures resembling an overgrown hedgehog, they are one of the only mammals that lay eggs besides the platypus.
Each day is different and each day is the same. There's always something to learn and adventure is never far away.
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