Five critically-endangered Cuban crocodiles hatched at the Smithsonian's National Zoo's Reptile Discovery Center between July 29 and Aug. 7.
The tiny Cuban crocodiles are a foot long, but they can possibly reach up to 10.5 feet long when they grow older. A 57-year-old crocodile named Dorothy was the one that laid the eggs and had laid a total of 24 eggs on a hole nest on May 12, according to Zoo Borns.
Female crocodiles often have difficulties in finding the eggs in the hole nest after they lay them, but the zookeepers have been keeping a close eye on Dorothy, noticing the physical changes, which implied that she had laid eggs.
Zookeepers were able to locate and exhume the eggs after spending a week searching for them in the nest. Ten eggs were fertile and placed in an incubator while the remaining eggs continued to grow for the duration of the gestation stage, CBS Baltimore reported.
In determining the gender of the Cuban crocs, it would actually depend on the eggs' incubating temperature. Eggs that are incubated between 89.6 and 90.5 degrees Fahrenheit will produce males, while temperatures higher or lower than that will create females.
Since Dorothy's nest was seven inches deep and its surface temperature was 84.7 degrees Fahrenheit, there's a chance that most, if not all, eggs will be males, something that the Species Survival Plan (SSP) for Cuban crocodiles will be pleased about.
The SSP requested for the zoo to develop male crocs in order to guarantee the Cuban croc population is maintainable under the care of humans, according to Patch.
