Crocolandia Foundation Inc

Crocolandia as a zoo was founded in 2001. It is located in Biasong, Talisay City, a suburb of Cebu City on the island of Cebu in the Philippines. Now called the Crocolandia Foundation it is a privately owned concern.

At some point in the past two Australian Zookeepers volunteered here and their keenness and expertise has rubbed off. Though hardly a 'great' collection it does have a bit more going for it than many. There is evidence of caring and concern.

This is one of a series of zoo reports that was actually included within my travel journal ‘The Itinerant ZooKeeper’. Initially I started to extract the zoo data but found the reading was diminished by it. So look on it as a zoo travelogue. The only major edits I have done is a little censoring and to remove the Casanova exploits.

Saturday 24th February 2007

The afternoon trip was a bit more of a journey involving a bit of walking, two jeepney and two tricycle rides. Early afternoon however we reached Crocolandia Foundation Inc in Biasong, Talisay City. A worthwhile trip as it turned out as this place is quite nice. At 80 Pesos each a bit more expensive to get in but that's still less than a quid.

Crocolandia began its life as a commercial turtle farm, rescued a crocodile and then other species and slowly transformed into the place it is today. You can see what it was but at the same time you can see what it isn't any longer. I liked it, most of it. True enough there are those cages and exhibits which need a few sticks of dynamite under them but in general the collection is heading in the right direction.

There was a school party having a guided educational tour whilst we were there so that was a plus. Most of the exhibits had nice little informative labels.

There were more species here and these included the ordinary and the unexpected. There were the crocodiles of course including a very large (6 metres) salty called 'Lapu Lapu'. There were another twenty five of these hidden away somewhere, I think I spotted two. There was a Cayman and five local Crocodylus mindorensis . There were Cattle egrets, Black bitterns Dupetor flavicollis , Rufous Night Heron and, would you believe it? another Greater Frigatebird. You never see one and then you see two in one day!

There was a female Ostrich, Sulcata and Star Tortoises. A couple of Tarsiers in a fairly decent cage, comparatively speaking. There was a pair of Rufous Hornbill Buceros hydrocorax , Visayan Tarictic Hornbill Penelopides panini , White Bellied Sea Eagles, Philippine Hawk Eagle Spizaetus philppensis , Brahminy Kites, Grass Owls, Philippine Scops Owls Otus megalotis , Philippines Hawk-owl Ninox philippensis , Common Koel, Coleto Sarcops calvus , several other bird species. Reptiles too including the Philippine Sailfin Lizards. There were the inevitable Civets. Better done by here than in many places though the cages could have been better located and, well better overall. One of the civets was whitish in colour though I did not get a real good look at it. The last time I saw one like this was in a food market in Jakarta, Indonesia.
There was a single Visayan Warty Pig. It looked healthy enough but the enclosure was far too small. Really really far too small. Generally though I quite liked this place. It needs encouragement to improve and may well make worthwhile contribution.

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