This week-end, we went to Puerto Princesa, Palawan to check out most of common tourist destination in the island. Among the first stops we made was at the Crocodile Farm which is being managed by the DENR in Puerto Princesa.

The farm is found near the city center of Puerto Princesa, about 20 to 30 minutes by land (usually minicabs or tricycle) down south. It is being maintained by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as a holding facility so a lot of animals here are also released into the wild or forest after they are rescued.

This skeleton of a huge crocodile is the largest ever that was captured in the 90′s. It has a length of about 5 meters from the nose to the tip of the tail and was discovered to have eaten half a body of a human. It later died in captivity.

The farm has hundreds of baby crocodiles bred in captivity and placed in batches inside a huge tub and fed twice a week. They are then transferred into a bigger pool when they grow up to a mature size.

There are two types of crocodiles in Palawan. The first kind is the freshwater crocodile and the second is the saltwater crocodile. About 80% of the swamps and rivers in Palawan are still infested with crocodiles so people needs to be very careful before going into these areas.

There’s a short tour inside the farm with a small fee of Php25 per person when visiting the place. Visitors are also allowed to have their pictures taken with a baby crocodile (about 1 meter long) with its mouth tied up.

The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River in Palawan made it to the Top 77 phase of the worldwide search for the New 7 Wonders of Nature. We also blogged about it here a year ago.

The voting has been suspended after the Top 77 poll ended last July 7, 2009. The panel of judges will publish the results of the Top 28 and will further slim it down to the final Top 7.