Tourism and Research – the Crocodile Adventure

One picture – two totally different reactions: Many people, mostly the adventurous type, who see this photo will think “Wow, capturing a crocodile, that’s sounds like real fun! Where can I book that tour?”. Others will say “Oh my god, capturing a crocodile, doesn’t that harm them? Shouldn’t Ecotourism help to conserve our planet and to protect its animals?”. But who says that these two different opinions can’t go hand in hand?

Actually it works quite well. We have been operating the Crocodile Adventure in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve for several years now. Supported by the local NGO, Amigos de Sian Ka’an ("friends"), which is in charge of the whole reserve, we invite interested tourists to join us on a nocturnal research excursion. Of course, during this tour we capture a crocodile for a certain period of time but not just for fun or an amazing photo memory. Principally we do so in order to collect different data of the crocodile like f.e. its length, sex or species. Sometimes we also take blood samples. Amigos de Sian Ka’an then uses this data for instance to determine the exact number of crocodiles in the reserve’s lagoons or to monitor their state of health.

This type of monitoring is very important for the ecosystems of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve. As an ecological aware tour operator we see tourism not mainly as a threat for our nature but more like a chance to conserve it. During all of our tours, environmental education of our clients is a main goal. Furthermore, we would like to remind you that a certain amount of every tour is donated for environmental projects like those of Amigos de Sian Ka’an in order to protect the Mayan Nature.

We operate the Crocodile Adventure every Monday night. Visit our homepage for further information.