- We're here at Primitive Predators
and my buddy Kyle's place,
and we're gonna do an amazing tour
of his entire facility.
And he has a 10 million dollar (cash register rings)
collection of crocodiles.
And the first enclosure is actually
one of my favorite crocodilians,
the Cuban crocodile.
- This is a young female Cuban crocodile.
She didn't get along with buddies,
so unfortunately, she's the only one in here but-
- [Brian] Wow, she's got a big enclosure
for one Cuban croc.
- So we're gonna be doing some introductions,
a little better introduction
with the enclosures over there.
Hopefully she'll get along with them
and there'll be more Cubans in here in the future.
(indistinct)
- Cubans are absolutely stunning.
Look at that female right there.
Unbelievable, athletic. Great animals.
So many incredible crocodilians here.
And then the last time we were actually here
we saw these for the very first time
and they're maybe more impressive now.
Of course, these are the Pied Nile.
Unbelievable.
Kyle, this one is looking so good.
This is the boy here?
- This is the female.
- [Brian] This is the female here?
- [Kyle] Yeah. - [Brian] Oh my gosh.
- [Kyle] They're both getting some saws on for sure
ever since they got here.
- [Brian] They look good. - They look awesome.
- And they're getting along. A great sign, you know.
Especially if we wanna produce these beautiful animals
in the future.
- [Brian] Oh my gosh, yeah. She is really stunning.
I mean, I can't believe how good she's looking.
Wow.
- [Kyle] You can really see the difference
in the eyes here, you know.
- Next up we have one of my favorite enclosures.
This is actually a bunch of Nile crocodiles.
They're half grown here.
So they're four, four and a half foot.
They're super energetic at this size.
We're gonna go ahead and throw some food in with them.
It's gonna be absolutely ridiculous.
Are you kidding me? This is the most ridiculous thing.
- There's so many in here, they're so well with each other.
You know, they do so well.
They could be so rough and grab each other,
but they're so careful.
They see the rats in each other's mouths
and they go for it, grab it.
They always want what the other one has.
- [Brian] Yeah, you can just see that clap right there.
Wow, how many are in here?
- There are 14 in here.
- [Brian] 14.
- Here you go, buddy.
That was like,
I think that was 40 rats.
- [Brian] 40 rats.
- [Kyle] 40 jumbo rats.
- 40 jumbo rats, (cash register rings)
that's quite a bit of money spent in about two seconds.
As you can see, every enclosure is absolutely gorgeous.
Some have just one or two crocodiles in it,
some have multiple crocodiles.
But look at how amazing these things are.
I mean, this is as high class, first class enclosures
you're ever gonna see anywhere in the entire world.
Next up, check out these beasties here.
These are Orinoco crocodiles. How many do you have?
- [Kyle] This is four females here.
- [Brian] Four females. Males are hard to get right?
- Males are hard to get,
but we're actually looking to do
actual conservation work with these four,
and also bring in a couple new males from Venezuela,
so new blood line and then a reintroduction program
with the off spring.
- They are critically endangered.
This is an animal that is very rarely bred in captivity,
so there definitely needs a lot of help for sure.
That would be amazing. Gosh.
This enclosure here actually has a little bit
smaller now crocodiles that aren't quite big enough
to go into the big enclosure with the big ones.
You can see these guys are so interesting.
Oh my gosh, how cute is that?
- Yeah, so these are actually that same clutch
that you guys just saw.
This is the old enclosure that they were in
and now the runts are in here.
- [Brian] Oh my gosh. Will they eventually go in the others?
- They will, yeah.
So this just gives them the opportunity to really catch up,
you know, really focus on the food.
I read studies that they found the runts
are actually absorbing less protein from their food source,
and that's what kind of causes the slower growth.
- [Brian] So this is absolutely a beautiful animal here.
This is actually a Golden Salt Porosus.
Look at that animal right there.
Wow.
Now is this a recessor or is this a (indistinct)
or you don't know yet?
- Honestly, I don't know.
I mean, we have a male and two females,
so hopefully, we will find out in the future
if they're all adults.
Just got again, same thing with the Pie,
just gotta get them to get along.
- Wow. That's a stunner.
Wow!
The athleticism of crocodiles.
The explosion that they have is absolutely ridiculous.
It's amazing to me what guys like Kyle,
that are so good at this.
You know, crocodiles look so similar.
I mean, don't you agree?
Like, how long did it take you to learn the differences?
- Ever since I was 10, I was madly obsessed with crocodiles,
so it's been 20 years.
Then you start to see the characteristics,
because there's a lot of hybrids, even in the pet trade.
- Of course, these are Filipino crocodiles,
which is amazing.
Just absolutely ridiculous.
This is actually a Chinese alligator.
Again, the thing that's interesting about this
is it is an alligator.
It's got the same nose features of an alligator,
the rounded snout,
but of course, this is about full grown right here.
They don't get much bigger, which is pretty cool.
There she goes.
- They have two different shallow areas,
a deep area.
Obviously, for breeding, a guillotine door here.
- [Brian] Ah, she just opens it up and there you go.
- Yep, so put the male in the middle,
females on either side, so they can go back and forth.
- Perfect.
Oh yeah, so the feeding tower.
This is awesome.
Yeah, it looks so beautiful standing up here.
Again, all these enclosures are the newer enclosures
that I haven't seen since I've been here.
Cool to see how this place continues to develop and develop.
Still have a long way to go, do you think?
Or are you getting there?
- Getting there.
I mean, essentially, all the peat pile ponds are done.
All we're doing is the tubs for the smaller ones
and about it, and clean up the place obviously.
- It's breathtaking every time I come.
This is actually a Broad-Snouted Caiman
in this one here.
They're so cool when they're babies especially.
They've got really cool,
almost Cuban crocodile type markings.
They're really beautiful.
It's the only one in here then?
- [Kyle] Yep she is.
A lot of younger ones we have,
they're like sub-adults.
- [Brian] Is your breeding program all conservation based?
- Well exactly.
I mean, I wanna put them together.
Most places probably won't breed them,
because what's the purpose?
It's not going to go back in the wild.
I don't think these are in danger.
If there's no purpose to it, why breed them,
because it's just more mouths to feed.
A lot more work to set up.
- [Brian] Yeah, so you're gonna be breeding the stuff
that you feel is the most important to kind of-
- Well, not even what I feel.
If there's an end goal with it, you know.
If there's genuine assurance quality needed,
by all means.
If there's genuine reintroduction programs, by all means.
But other than that, I'm not gonna produce animals
just to feed the pet trade.
(intense music)
- Oh, look at that.
That was absolutely-
And this one, she wrestles hard too.
And then we have some enclosures
that are getting ready to be done here.
Again, you can see just enclosure after enclosure.
I mean, the enclosure itself looks beautiful.
Just some fencing and you're pretty much ready to go, huh?
- Yep, and then we actually added three more.
We added one more of this size.
Two that are bigger because they're for Osteolaemus,
the African Dwarf crocodiles.
But this one, you can see it's bumped out a lot more
and you can really roam around.
- So these are some of the original enclosures, right?
When you first moved- - They are, yeah.
- [Brian] And so you've got an alligator in here, right?
- Yeah, this is Trapper the American alligator.
12 foot alligator.
Definitely ready to remodel this enclosure.
Put grass all around, put more trees in it.
- The thing that I think is amazing about crocodilians
is that they'll come when they're called.
And of course, they think they're gonna get fed,
but still, it's really cool that they can come.
Look at this.
It's a dinosaur man, it's ridiculous.
He's like, "That's it."
And there's no doubt that Kyle has done an amazing job
with this facility.
I mean, look at every enclosure.
Of course, the Niles are right here.
Look at these. I mean, it's crazy how cool it is.
Although this place is getting close to being done,
he still wants to do some improvements.
This just gets better every single time.
He's really got a heart and a passion for it.
I mean, look at every single one of these enclosures.
World class. I mean, just absolutely incredible.
Well thought out.
Took him 20 years to kind of get to the point
where he could design and have something like this
and really work it out, and he's got it dialed in.
I tell you, I mean, look at this.
It's enclosure after enclosure.
There's no doubt that he's spent the money
that he's spent on this place
because it's definitely one of the cooler places
down here in Florida, there's no doubt about that.
I mean, look at how beautiful this enclosure is right here.
You've got the palm trees.
It's just absolutely ridiculous, you know.
And over the next several years,
there'll be more and more crocodiles coming here.
He's got so much stuff going on.
I tell you, this place is a dream.
There's no doubt about that.
- We're just gonna do, you know,
with just the tubs themselves, we do a land area.
But again, with everything I'm doing here,
I'm all about natural, about giving them a ton of space
where I'm happy,
where I'm confident the animal is living a great life.
I wasn't happy with just the tub
'cause I mean, there could be a five,
four foot animal in here,
so I wanted to make sure they had plenty of space,
so I wanted to make sure they had natural soil.
And obviously too is you gotta take it into effect
being outside.
You know, in the winter, the sun is lower in the sky.
Did the land area which I was gonna do
originally over there,
they wouldn't have gotten sun in the winter.
This will just be more of a juvenile grow out area.
So four, five foot animals.
You know, I've even had a lot of calls throughout the years
of zoos and institutions, when a hurricane is coming,
they want to place their animal somewhere safe.
So obviously, this is category five hurricane rated
and this would be great even for an eight foot animal,
eight foot alligator.
- [Brian] For short term.
- Exactly, if there's a hurricane coming
and a zoo or an institution needs a facility
that can handle category five hurricane
and not worry about it, this is it.
- It's beautiful.
- Again, just plenty of room.
Be out in the natural sun light.
And there's no alternative for the natural sunlight.
So there's no point keeping them inside.
They can be out here and thrive.
Remember when I mentioned about the Cuban crocodile
going somewhere to be introduced
with its hopefully enclosure mates?
This is it.
So what this will be is this will
have chain link in the water all the way down here,
and this is gonna be for three to four animals.
Split in the middle and then split down here,
so there are four separate enclosures in this area.
- [Brian] So they'll get used to each other
before being introduced to each other?
- Exactly.
A chain link in the water, they can be next to each other.
Then I'll have guillotine doors that I can open up
and try these two together or these two together.
Once they've passed this area,
then they go to enclosure and then they can be together.
But you know, crocodiles are brutal, man.
All it takes is one bad bite
and they could kill each other.
So I want somewhere that's super safe
that we can do proper introductions
and know they're okay.
I bought this property August of 2015.
Didn't break ground for three years.
Drawing, drawing, drawing. Redesigning.
- [Brian] When I was here last time,
it was kind of just starting to get developed.
You had the cement down.
But to see it actually come together is amazing.
Super nice pathways, super luxuries.
Beautiful enclosures like this.
I am blown away by this building behind us
right over here.
Here in this beautiful green house, it's amazing.
So what do we have?
- We have a tortoise in here
and he's a rescue tortoise, but he is-
- He's over in his little hut.
He's probably just hanging out.
Burmese Mountain Tortoises,
you hardly ever really see these guys,
or at least, I don't hardly ever see these guys.
Another one of the giant tortoises.
Hello! Oof.
And that's the dad to the baby salties.
I mean, unbelievable.
That is absolutely a beast.
Did your love of crocodilians
start with the alligators?
- It really did.
I mean, between growing up in the United States,
seeing these amazing animals in Florida.
I mean, every single air boat tour,
the pinnacle of the air boat tour
was to find the American alligator.
And between that and also, at the air boat tour facility,
you could actually handle alligators this size.
And between those two loves, it was a done deal.
- And now you've moved on to the big boys here.
This is beautiful.
- Yes, the biggest and the baddest,
this is the Australian Salt Water crocodile.
There's no comparison in an alligator.
They're just gentle giants.
They can still do a lot of damage.
Such an enjoyable experience to work with
compared to these crazy, crazy crocodiles.
- And the other giant crocodile
that you definitely work with a lot is this guy here.
- This is the African Nile crocodile.
- Absolutely amazing. Niles are amazing.
And you have quite the group of them.
I mean, you have a lot.
- I do.
It's like the typical rabbit story
where you start out with two
and all of a sudden, you got a hundred of them.
- Speaking of a hundred of them,
of course, this alligator's one of the rescue projects
that they're working on here.
Tell me a little bit about that.
- Yeah, so in Pennsylvania, I mean, it's where I grew up.
You know, the beauty and the curse of it is,
you can go to any reptile show
and pick one up for $75.
- That's not a pet, by the way.
- No, it got me into the door to start everything,
but a lot of people shouldn't be having them as pets,
buy them when they're babies,
and they get that size
and then they're like "What the heck do I do with this?"
We actually go up there, tame the animals in Pennsylvania.
We have a quarantine facility up there.
Once they pass quarantine,
then they come down here to Florida
and live out their days here.
- Ah, that's amazing. It's pretty cool.
It's cool to see kind of the tour place.
I'm so happy we got a chance to check it out.
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