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Australian King croc makes The Dubai Mall its new home

The croc pair is expected to spend 90 pc of their time in the pool, and the remaining time resting on the land area with heated tiles constructed for them.

King Croc and Queen Croc from Australia’s Queensland at the Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo. — KT photos by Rahul Gajjar

There’s a pair of new comers at The Dubai Mall aquarium. One of the world’s largest reptiles, King Croc and Queen Croc are the newest addition to the mall’s aquarium and have been flown in from Queensland, Australia. The duo is now housed in a special underwater enclosure made especially for them. Their glass enclosure replicates their natural habitat in Queensland, except the water there was muddier. The zoo already had dwarf African crocodiles but the King Croc is the celebrity of the moment.

The 40-year old Australian saltwater crocodile King Croc is 5 metres long, weighs over 750kg, eats a chicken a day, and spends a lot of time underwater. The Queen Croc’s exact age is unknown. She eats less – half a chicken a day - and is a less colossal creature, although the handlers say, of the two, she’s the one who wears the pants.

King Croc and his queen have been a couple for 20 years and sleep chin-on-chin.

Here, they live in a 150 sq m pool, with controlled humidity, an artificial breeze, and constant monitoring of air quality. The water temperature is maintained between 28 to 30 degree Celsius. The croc pair is expected to spend 90 per cent of their time in the pool, and the remaining time resting on the land area with heated tiles constructed especially for them. A pair of kookaburra birds have also been flown in to the enclosure, and two more will be added, so the crocs hear familiar sounds as they used to hear ‘back home’.

Several design elements of the croc enclosure are actually safety components, with hydraulic gates installed at key points, and the acrylic glass said to be strong enough to withstand the thrashing of a 750kg heavy reptile.

Opposite the croc enclosure, and in their own enclosures roam the Humboldt penguins and spiny king crabs.

With the conditions replicated almost to perfection, there aren’t very many ways that the croc pair can tell they’re in a mall. But Paul Hamilton, head curator of The Dubai Mall aquarium and underwater zoo and crocodile handler who was in the large team that transported the (sedated) croc pair from Queensland to the UAE, said that one of the give aways would probably be that they “won’t be able to tell the changing seasons here in the aquarium”. Other than which, the Emaar mall is now the pair’s second home.

nivriti@khaleejtimes.com