Today, June 17, is World Croc Day. This day was started in 2017 by the Coalition for the Study of Crocodiles in cooperation with the Belize Zoo.

World Croc Day is a global awareness campaign designed to draw attention to the plight of endangered crocodiles and alligators around the world.

The purpose of the holiday is to raise people's awareness of the plight of crocodiles and alligators and protect them from extinction in the near future.

Mykolaiv Zoo joins the celebration of this holiday.

For the first time in 1952, an American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) named Vasya entered the collection of our zoo in exchange for lion cubs born in Mykolaiv Zoo (memories about this were found in the city archive). Vasya lived in our zoo for 68 years. He is the only one to enter the book of records of Ukraine twice: in 2012 and in 2017 for life expectancy. He was the oldest animal in our zoo and zoos in Ukraine.

Unfortunately, on January 17, 2023, at the age of 76, the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) named Vasya died. Many residents of Mykolaiv remember him from childhood. This is a great loss for the zoo. Today, his effigy adorns the museum of zoo history. The work was performed at a high professional level in the city of Zaporizhzhia by the taxidermist Pavlo Malykhin.

Currently, a young Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) named Yasir is kept in Mykolaiv Zoo. This is the only species of crocodile in our zoo. Although Yasir is young, he is a real predator, very active and toothy! The Nile crocodile eats, of course, food of animal origin, fish and meat. Unlike our old-timer, the American alligator Vasya, who was an animal of respectable age, calm, docile and phlegmatic, Yasir is a young, tenacious and very agile crocodile. Therefore, Vasya the crocodile's former enclosure had to be remodeled for a new resident, because the partitions in the enclosure, through which the rather clumsy Vasya could not climb, are not an obstacle for the young Nile crocodile. The enclosure was remodeled taking into account safety considerations, the pool was separated from the "land" by an additional grate, and the windows for feeding were barred. The animal has a pool with warm water, additional lamps for heating.

Anyone can now see the only representative of crocodiles in Mykolaiv Zoo – the Nile crocodile Yasir. The enclosure is located in the warm exhibition room of the primate department.