The Crocodile Museum at Zoológico Regional Miguel Álvarez del Toro (ZooMAT), Mexico: ‘How to exhibit a bullfrog’ put into reality

Abstract

Staff at the Zoológico Regional Miguel Álvarez del Toro (ZooMAT), Mexico, have acquired over several decades extensive background knowledge about various aspects of the biology and conservation of the three species of crocodilians inhabiting Chiapas; the Chiapas' caiman Caiman crocodilus chiapasius, American crocodile Crocodylus acutus and Morelet's crocodile Crocodylus moreletii. This knowledge was put into practice when designing a new exhibit to provide visitors with a better understanding of crocodilians. In 2003, an initiative by the government of Chiapas State to support ZooMAT with new projects and renovations, resulted in the adaptation of an unfinished building, originally constructed as an aquarium, into a Crocodile Museum, which opened in 2004. The public enters via the open jaws of a scale model of an American crocodile, and inside visitors can view graphics and displays describing the natural history and ecology of the three species in a national and international context. Murals, dioramas with mounted animals, aqua–terrariums with living crocodiles and caimans, tanks containing animals that are part of the crocodilian food chain and the skeletons of specimens of diverse sizes are all on display. Outside the building there is a contact area where guides talk to the public and provide information, and visitors are allowed to touch materials laid out on a table. There is also an amphitheatre where formal lectures are given and visitors can view the enclosures containing breeding crocodilians. From here the visitors are able to access the remaining living collection of ZooMAT.