Dubai: The first crocodile park in the Middle East, which is expected to be completed within two years, will be used for research purposes and to raise public awareness about the endangered animals, said a top official.
Dubai Municipality on Thursday signed a Dh10 million agreement with White Oryx Investment LLC to set up the Crocodile Park in Dubai, and is expected to be completed in 24 months.
“This ambitious project would be a turning point in the history of Dubai tourism and research projects as the proposed crocodile park would encompass different crocodile species in future stages of the park development, enabling tourists and research students to learn from A to Z about the crocodile — a gigantic animal existing for the last 220 million years,” announced Engineer Hussain Lootah, director general of Dubai Municipality.
“Being a metropolitan city that has been enjoying the total turnover of 10 million tourist per year, Dubai is always keen to put its enduring efforts in the field of sustainable development along with natural and wildlife conservation creating a number of natural reserves such as Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary, Mushrif Park and Desert Conservation Reserve in addition to several initiatives to protect animals like turtles, Arabian Oryx, hawks, camels and horses,” he said.
“The park will cover a span of 20,000 square metres and will have up to 200 crocodiles The park will strengthen the role of the UAE in the protection of endangered animal species, and we will be working closely with educational institutions as an alternative and pedagogical tool that encourages the interest of youth in natural sciences,” said Khalifa Abdullah Hareb, director of assets management department at Dubai Municipality.
He explained that this projects would adopt an eco-friendly approach like all other projects of the civic body through sustainable use of eco-friendly materials, resources, waste, renewable energy and creating a “suitable environment for the crocodiles for a hassle free living, interaction and reproduction.”
Crocodile Park is to belocated in the north east of Dubai, about 10 kilometres from the international airport and close to the Mushrif Reserve and Dubai Safari.
One of the main challenges faced by authorities in constructing the crocodile park is to adjust the crocodiles to the high temperatures and to reproduce its natural environment.
“The species in the park will be Nile crocodiles, and it will be interesting to study how the eggs are incubated and the temperature is regulated, because males can only be hatched in a temperature from 30-31 degrees Celsius,” said Dr Reza Khan, Specialist, Wildlife and Zoo Management, Public Parks and Horticulture Department of Dubai Municipality.
