Life In Borneo

Posted by Eshark on February 24th, 2008 in Destinations

Located in Tuaran, northern part of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The crocodile farm was first open on 2005 and operates as a branch of one of the three other crocodile farm in Sandakan and Langkawi with more than 1,000 crocodiles.

The background of this sucessful crocodile farm was started about 50 years ago where one young boy from a fishonger family started with small pond when a fishermen gave him crocodile hatchings that caught in their nets. From there, this boy gradually manage to built up his carrier breeding more than 3,000 crocodiles babies annually and the business keep going forward.

Before you get close see the crocodile cage, you’ll find few of other crocodiles that has been waxed for display purposed along after the entrance.

some of the crocodiles has its own story.. like this one : A giant male saltwater crocodile, 60 years old and weighing at 2200 pounds with 16 feet long was shot at Kinabatangan river in 2003 by eating one of the villagers.

As for this one.. a very skillful crocodile, 2 times champions in a row on kinabatangan river power jet ski championship.

While this one of a kind boxing crocodile you can find in Sabah.

also there’s a crocodile can stand with two legs.

This to show the idea of how the crocodile hatching.

The one and only live crocodile that not kept inside the cage was this one.. take this opportunity to feel yourself how’s a crocodile skin like, don’t worry the mouth has been covered.. with what? with soletape!!!!

This huge fish are Arapaima fish from South America, Brazil. Born in the Amazon river and it can grow along 15 feet long (man that’s big!!) with a life spend of 60 years. Many of the visitors throw up their coins into the pond and make some wish.

this how the crocodile cage looks like and there are about more than 30 cages.

from a tiny little crocodiles..

to a small size crocodiles…

and a larger crocodile.

and an extra large saltwater crocodile, born in 1984. (see the cage size compare to the rest above!!) This croc was a naturally bisexual crocodile.

While this one I find very unique where there’s no tail on this crocodile (this was real and I’m not doing my photoshop magic)

and this two hunchback crocodiles, really get my attention. Born hunchback in 1998 in Sandakan, it was said to be a birth defect and locals name it ‘Si Bongkok’.

One of the oldest crocodile in the farm, 70 years old saltwater crocodile at 19 feet long. Killed a man in Kinabatangan river in 2006 and attacked one villagers and bite off his feet on Feb last year. Behold the one and only… ‘Bujang Sukau’

and while waiting for the crocodile show that starts at 1pm, nearby there’s a pond of plenty of hungry river fish.

what you need to do is to feed them with this.

This poor little cute deer is waiting to be thrown into one of the crocodile cage… He! He! just kidding! I’m not so sure what this deer doing here, according to the worker, all crocodiles are feed by a chicken and meat that are bought from the market.

This is how the crocodile show pond looks like. Can you spotted 5 crocodiles inside?(urgh!! the big one was so obvious, don’t count that one)

and it’s show timeeeee…. There were 4 peoples in the pond, 3 male and one cute female. All of these guys really have balls (exclude the female) where they only holding a stick of bamboo as protection. According to the speaker, all crew are communicate with the crocodile through their heart.

The show starts playing with a small size of crocodiles first where they showed the back skin of crocodiles that worth few thousands ringgit.

Next, one of the crew shows his skills dancing with the small crocodile while a local songs call ‘Proton Saga Kelabu’ played loud on the speaker as the background.

After.. they showed DIY on how to brush a crocodile teeth. See the toothbrush??? Basar gilak!

and it’s time to play with one of the largest crocodile in the house, aka ‘Bujang Tuaran’ .. This time the girl showed her skills on how to give massage on Bujang’s back using her feet.

While this is how you give massage to crocodile’s back using your hand in silence.

and last one, a special pose to the visitors. Give applause to Bujang Tuaran and his crew…

The special show for the day not just ended there, after..there’s a cultural dance show in this long house or the locals call it ‘Rumah Panjang’

The cultural dance show start with ‘Tarian Limbai’, a traditional dance from the Bajau community from Kota Belud district of the west coast of Sabah.

next, a dance call ‘Tarian Sumazau’, is a popular dance of the Kadazandusun a minority in the west coast of Sabah.

and last one was my favourite.. ‘Tarian Magunatip’, a dance perfomed among the indegious people of the interior of Sabah including the Kadazandusun of Tambunan and many of Muruts groups.

What makes this Magunatip dance unique was the skills of the dancers dancing + playing with bamboos was really amazing.

after the show finished, you can visit the long house by this bamboo bridge to see how the interior like.

and last, before you go, test your skills on this FREE Fishing pond.

Taman Buaya Tuaran Sabah Crocodile Farm
Tickets : RM10 (Adult) / RM5 (Children)
Opens Daily : 8.30am to 5.30pm

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Posted by Eshark of esharkdesign.com Borneo Freelance Rockstar Designer