Tipping the Scales
One by one, the young dwarf crocodiles wriggled in Keeper Drew Foster’s hands as they were measured and weighed at Regenstein Small Mammal-Reptile House (SMRH), but Foster was sure to keep a firm grip. After all, he was holding precious cargo. The five hatchlings, which emerged from their eggs on September 12, were the first set of offspring for Lincoln Park Zoo’s resident breeding pair. That’s particularly notable when you consider that their father, R1, has been around for nearly half as long as the zoo has existed.

R1 arrived at Lincoln Park Zoo as a juvenile in 1940 and has inhabited haunts in the Old Reptile House (now Park Place Café) and SMRH in the decades since. For the past nine years he’s basked and swam with a companion, a female dwarf crocodile that’s shared space with him in SMRH and Regenstein African Journey, the current home for the adult pair.

While R1’s age never prevented breeding—keepers have periodically found eggs laid within the species’ enclosure—incubation has been an issue, with the adult crocodiles damaging the eggs with their 60-pound bodies and two-foot tails. So when keepers found intact eggs in June, they moved them to a back room for artificial incubation, which set the stage for five scaly heads to poke their way out of the shells.

Due to the new arrivals’ small size—they currently tip the scales at 2.3 ounces and measure 9.5 inches tip-to-tail—they’ve been housed away from their parents in their own aquatic exhibit in SMRH. Despite their age, they’ve quickly picked up the crocodile’s art of floating motionlessly through the water, meaning the minnows who share their enclosure should be wary of getting too comfortable with their new, toothy exhibit mates.