[Steve] The Crocoseum raises the
worldwide benchmark for animal demonstrations in a perfect view
from every seat in the stands. They said it could never be done, and now I can bring crocodiles
into the hearts of people so we can save these modern-day dinosaurs. Welcome to the world famous Crocoseum! This is the centerpiece of Australia Zoo and it is a lot of time
and effort in the making. Dad had a vision to bring wildlife to thousands of people every day in the ultimate showcase of education. And this is it right here. The Crocoseum first opened in 2003, and since then millions of
people have been right here and witnessed some truly
incredible wildlife experiences. For us, croc conservation is
what we're all about. So if we can educate 5000 people
at a time, we're going to be doing a lot for these creatures. But creating a 5000 seat auditorium, having crocodiles come out here,
full bore, trying to attack the keepers and teaching everyone about
them is a lot easier said than done. So I thought I'd tell
you a little bit about the very storied
past of the Crocoseum and how it became the greatest
wildlife showcase on the planet. It all started way back
in the day in the early 2000's, when the original plans for
the Crocoseum were starting to come
to fruition. So when construction started, this, everything you see here was just a field. It was going to be a very difficult
task from the beginning. Over the course of years,
the construction people, artists, engineers, everyone got
together and started to build. Now, there were definitely
a few setbacks, and often that came in the form
of unforeseen weather events. Here there's a
monsoonal system, huge rains that come down and that put a big halt
in construction. And a lot of people
said it couldn't be done that there would be no way
a crocodile would come through an intricate series of canal systems
out into a big auditorium where there's thousands of people
cheering on and come out and react exactly how it would in the wild. Eventually, a lot of perseverance,
a lot of hard work, this was open for our busy Christmas
school holidays in 2003. [Steve] Thanks very much for
coming in to Australia Zoo. We've been working really hard to get the Crocoseum up and running, and here we are. I'm about to do the
first demonstration that we've ever
done in here. [Robert] And the opening of the
Crocoseum happened to coincide with another very special milestone. My birth. Of course, we wanted to showcase
all of our beautiful birds with macaws, we have jabiru, we've got our gorgeous
water birds coming out, but since the beginning, we always knew crocodiles
were going to be the most difficult, but also the most incredible
animals to showcase here. Our crocodiles love coming out here
and exhibiting this natural behavior. This is specially designed
so that we can show you every different predatory instinct. It's nice and deep in here. This replicates exactly how
you'd find a croc in the wild. They'll come through this canal. They'll stalk. They'll come up to the shallows. And we'll give that big stomp
on the side of the water. And when you see us do that,
that's sending out vibrations. Crocodiles work off vibration. They'll strike out of the water,
we'll run as fast as we can and get them right out onto
this beautiful big hit pad and they'll put on a massive hit. Grab the food, and then
we head over across the creek and we do the next feed. Take my shoes off of this one. And we do the next
feed over here. We'll jump across the creek. And in this section,
we can show that incredible side swing, the pure
speed of a crocodile. So this little section here
is definitely the most dicey. But dad wanted this to really show you just how much you have to keep your wits
about you in crocodile territory. And some of the strikes
that we've had over here, they’re near misses. Then over here, we've got one
of my favorite parts of the show. This is the tail walk ramp. We'll have this nice big, deep
bit of water here. We can have our food
hanging over the edge here, and crocodiles will come up
and actually bolt upright straight out of the water vertical, sometimes
getting past this top rung here. It's incredible to watch. So I think that the Crocoseum
is really special for all of us, and it's where we feel closest to dad. This was the place he loved
more than anywhere else, and as a family we get to continue
that vital crocodile conservation. It is so much fun being in here
feeding crocodiles every day, but it's also incredibly important
to really showcase how much we need to love
and respect these animals. Such an honor for me,
getting to follow in Dad's footsteps and continue doing these shows
for our thousands of guests every day. [Steve] Well, that's the first croc
demo I've ever done in here and I'd just like a round
of applause for Murray. Whooo! [Terri] Have an awesome
day and remember, crocs rule! Thanks guys!
