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Crocodile expert arrives in Taiwan

"It's very hard to convince people of the importance of conserving crocs and snakes when these animals can kill you."

Brady Barr, television presenter and reptile expert

Reptiles such as snakes and crocodiles may look scary to some people, but to television presenter and reptile expert Brady Barr, they are amazing animals that need to be protected.

Making Taiwan the first stop on his visit to Asia, Barr arrived here last Friday. In addition to attending an activity at the Taipei Zoo over the weekend, he shared his experiences in reptile conservation with the Bureau of Forestry and members of the public in a speech yesterday.

Former teacher

Once a school biology teacher, Barr became the first person to capture and study all 23 crocodile species in the wild. He completed his final three captures in Borneo, China and the Philippines last year.

Although he is now working with the National Geographic Society, Barr said he had never really left teaching.

"My class just went from 30 to 200 million [people]," he said.

According to Barr, he has been engaged in educational projects on crocodile conservation for years.

"It's very hard to convince people of the importance of conserving crocs and snakes when these animals can kill you," Barr said.

However, in order to raise awareness of reptile conservation among the youth, Barr, who says crocodiles are a critical species in certain ecosystems, has created a project in which schoolchildren are given crocodile eggs so that they can watch the reptiles hatch and then care for them.

The project began in Costa Rica six or seven years ago and has proven very popular with children, Barr said, adding that children's newfound passion for crocodiles had even influenced their parents' feelings toward the animals.

Incentives

Barr said that to effectively conserve endangered animals, "you need to give local people business incentives [through tourism ventures]."

However, bringing people into close contact with crocodiles creates its own set of problems, Barr said.

"We are scared of a certain kind of animal usually because we don't understand it," said Lue Kuang-yang (呂光洋), a professor in the department of life sciences at National Taiwan Normal University.

Bureau of Forestry Deputy Director-General Li Tao-sheng (李桃生) said that several natural preservation zones had been created in the country to "foster a better co-existence between animals and ourselves."
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