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A silly title, but best I could do with my brain racking how I'm going to accomplish a week of multitasking! For the first time, the Croc Bank bred the African slender snouted crocodile (M. cataphractus). In our off-exhibit display, one female took a long time to lay, gathering nest material. We collected the eggs, and since our whole population of this species (6) here are females, none of them were fertile. 2 months later, I observed another female basking near the nest frequently. We emptied the pond to clean it out, and just happening to examine the nest, when we found another clutch of eggs, right in the same nest! Both females are non-agressive towards each other, but defend the shared nest with rapid jaw-slaps followed by a charge from the water.

Last month, one of our 3 Yacare caiman (C. yacare) females laid a nest, which was again collected. No males here either. Now last night, we discovered that one of the other females laid in the same nest, an identical situation like the one with the cataphractus! Again, there is no agression between both females, and both of them defend their nest. Im going to try and get some pics up of both of these situations, crocs willing.

I'd be real interested to hear about similar situations.

The nesting dates are given below for the interested:

Mecistops cataphractus: Nest 1 18th June 2010 (Clutch size 23); Clutch mass 2342 gms
Nest 2, eggs discovered on 24th June 2010 (Clutch size 24);
Clutch mass 2106 gms

Caiman yacare: Nest 1 4th August 2010 (Clutch size 31)
Nest 2 8th August 2010 (Clutch size 24)