Crocodile lays 34 eggs at breeding centre

Female crocodile Juliet laid 34 eggs at 9am yesterday at Karmajal Wildlife Breeding Center, Chandpai Range of Eastern Sundarbans division.

The forest department has kept 26 eggs in an incubator and eight in Juliet’s nest, said Karmajal Wildlife Breeding Centre’s officer-in-charge Mohammad Azad Kabir.

He said hopefully the babies will emerge from the natural and preserved eggs 90 days from now. Juliet’s previously intended mate Romeo had become unsuitable to mate as he was overweight, experts speculated.

Hence, another male crocodile was brought in from Bangabandhu Safari Park last year in August. Until now, Juliet has laid eggs 13 times.

For preservation and growth of crocodiles, the country’s only crocodile breeding centre was built in Bagerhat’s Karmajal in 2002. At present, there are six large and 200 small crocodiles there.