Smiley in action
Island Wildlife Encounter is giving visitors yet another reason to smile by introducing its newest attraction, Smiley the crocodile.
Living in her own purpose-built enclosure, named Smiley’s Saltwater Lounge, the croc has proven very popular since being introduced officially in April. The highlight for her fans is the three weekly feeding shows where Smiley rises out of the water to snare her food dangled above her.
Cayman Turtle Farm Managing Director Tim Adam said he is delighted to be introducing Smiley to the public. “Our Animal Programmes staff have worked hard to get to know this fascinating creature over the four-plus years since Smiley has been with us. She is quite a character! Now visitors to the Turtle Farm can experience a bit of her behaviour first-hand and up close,” he said.
The nine-foot-long crocodile is no stranger to the limelight, however, having made headlines when she was first spotted and eventually caught in the waters off the Queen’s Highway in North Side at the end of 2006.
Once it was discovered that Smiley was a mix of the American and Cuban crocodile, the Cayman Turtle Farm offered her a home, since environmentalists consider it undesirable to release hybrid animals into the wild. The croc was the first of its kind seen in the Cayman Islands since one was reported shot in Little Cayman in 1959. Smiley is now one of only three confirmed crocodiles dwelling in Cayman today; and currently Cayman’s largest native land animal. The other two reported
in Cayman waters are much smaller creatures that live in the wild.
Since Smiley has been living at the Cayman Turtle Farm, Animal Programmes staff have been getting to know and train her. She can now follow a pole target and launch out of the water to jump for her food. The enclosure affords onlookers a great view through Plexiglas panels that keep the visitors safe only a few feet away from the crocodile. A sign at the enclosure also offers information about Smiley.
Geddes Hislop, the Curator for the Terrestrial and Education Programme at the Turtle Farm, offers visitors a short presentation on Smiley and crocodiles. Mr. Hislop said: “We hope that this new exhibit, which offers a great opportunity to watch Smiley, will both entertain and educate visitors as we highlight the significance of the crocodile in Cayman’s history.”
The islands’ name “Cayman” is an Anglicised version of the word Caiman, the Spanish word for crocodile which was derived from the language of the indigenous peoples that inhabited Cuba and the Bahamas. Although because of the abundance of sea turtles at the time of discovery in 1503 Columbus named the islands “Las Tortugas” the islands were re-named “Caimanes” as far back as the 1530’s due to the large numbers of these crocodiles reported by colonial explorers in those
days.
Smiley’s Feeding Shows currently are scheduled for every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 11:45 am, but they vary to best match her metabolism and nutrition needs, so to avoid disappointment, please check with the Turtle Farm before visiting as the times may change.