Croc Farm Visit

Croc Farm Visit

On Monday the 2^nd of August Sondela Academy gave the first year students (and some second years. Even of the HRL management species) the opportunity to become site guides at the Thaba Kwena Crocodile farm. This was done in exchange for teaching their guides some basic guiding principles.

We were told the week beforehand that we needed to do some research about the crocodiles. Needless to say that the majority of research happened on the morning of the trip.

The day started with a stop at PnP where the ever hungry students filled their gullets. A noisy bus ride later we were out of Bela-Bela and into the Waterberg mountains.

The Thaba Kwena crocodile farm is about 30 km out of Bela-Bela. The farm has about 22 000 crocs at any given time and a breeding stock consisting of 40 males and 300 females. They specialise in exporting the meat and leather of the crocs to North America and Europe.

The Education started with a tour given by their guides. The variants between our info and theirs was largely due to the difference between captive and wild crocs. One thing came to the surface: there were about 4 different kinds of info-among that which we had gathered-with things such as the length of the crocs differing with up to 2m. This resulted in our first lesson of the day-Make sure that your source is reliable and credible.

All the while making notes and asking plenty of questions.

The general information of the crocodiles was divided into 16 sections thus giving each student a specific section to cover.

You received your topic and then you did some research by comparing notes to the information gathered by your fellow students. Then your assessor went through your info with you telling you if you missed something. We then put together a poster that can later be used to explain what you know in simple terms to somebody else.

We were given the opportunity to present this info to the rest of the students to show your understanding and share your knowledge with the other. There was plenty of mispronunciation and even more laughs, who knew that Zenobia’s dancing-while-speaking would surface so long after the gap year?

This also presented the second-years with the chance to practice their assessor skills for which they had qualified earlier this year.

All in all the trip was very successful and we learnt plenty. Thank you Oom Diederick and the Academy for presenting us with this opportunity.

News Letter Sondela Academy

Antonet Behr Nature Student