Homecoming: The Tale of these Cuban Crocodiles: Croc Babies Being Transported Back to Cuba
Ten Baby Cuban Crocodiles are being returned back to their homeland in the marshy swamps of Cuba. These Baby crocs have a great trivia about them. They are the offspring of a couple of crocodiles that were gifted in 1970s by the erstwhile Cuban President Fidel Castro to a Russian Cosmonaut, Vladimir Shatalov. The crocodiles are now to be transported back to Cuba in a kind of a homecoming for them.
The baby crocodiles which were born close to twenty months back in a zoo in Sweden, measure about 1 meter long (Three Feet and Three Inches). The two crocodiles gifted by Castro were transferred to the Swedish three decades ago, when a director of the Swedish Aquarium was given an opportunity to transport the animals from Moscow. Prior to this the cosmonaut was unable to accommodate the crocodiles. Ever since, these reptiles, named Hillary & Castro, have been kept in the zoo.
Now these crocodiles' offsprings have been offered the opportunity to return back to Cuba to their homeland. Jonas Wahlstorm, who is Stockholm's Skansen Zoo's Zookeeper has accompanies the creatures back to Cuba. He felt that this is a very important step made by them towards saving these reptiles from extinction. As it is there are fewer than Hundred Cuban Crocodiles that remain and this is mainly due to the loss of habitat & the deterioration of their ecosystem. Wahlstorm also opined that this was the most "beautiful & rarest" crocodile species and that they are highly aggressive compared to other crocodiles.
The baby crocs will now be kept in quarantine for a few months in Cuba and later will be transferred to a Semi-captive environment. Only after they are over three years old will they be actually released to their natural habitat - the marshlands, in order to ensure that they are not too vulnerable.