Miri Crocodile Farm

Yesterday was a holiday here in Brunei. So with no school or work keeping us home we headed over the border to Malaysia to visit the Miri Crocodile Farm. I'm not a real fan of zoos, nor am I ready to become an activist, but it was quite hard to look at the way these animals have to spend their remaining days. There was at least 1000 crocodile at the farm. Most were confined in overcrowded pens where territory was regularily being fought over. My boys did however love it. We saw many animals up close which were quite neat. We saw several poisonous snakes, sun bears, monkeys, turtles, deer, and of course crocodiles. The neatest bird we saw was in the top right picture. It would repeat what you said to it, and could also meow like a cat, and had a superb cat calling whistle. We talked to it for quite some time. The monkeys were also hilarious to watch. There was a family of about 6. They even gave us a candid display of reproduction where my boys were asking "What are they doing??" We ended the tour while watching the crocodiles being fed. It was another lesson in a healthy fear of these great animals. We headed home with one quick stop at the duty free. It seems you can never pass picking up booze when out of the country as it is unavailable in Brunei. Once home we finished up the day with dinner at our friends, also our new neighbours.