Special zoo is ready to reap rewards
05/12/2008
A crocodile zoo, set in in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, in 2006, is ready to export the skins of 20,000 of the 60,000 reptiles that live there.
The company that runs the facility, Crocoland, has told local media that it has sent all the relevant paperwork to the Bolivian government and to the national branch of the organisation that monitors population levels of endangered species, CITES.
It added that tanneries in Asia, the US and Europe were all waiting to receive the skins of the first batch of crocodiles, which, after two years, had now grown to their full size.
Roberto Rodríguez, director of operations at the zoo, said: "These reptiles are now at the ideal size and everything is in place for us to export the skins to markets that are waiting to receive them."
In recent years, there have been several cases of breeding centres in Latin America boosting the population of specific types of endangered reptiles, with a proportion going into the meat and leather supply chains to fund ongoing projects.
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