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CROCODOPOLIS world of crocodilians TM SCIENCE · CULTURE · INDUSTRY · NEWS · COMMUNICATION · CONSERVATION
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FEATURES
profiles
February 8, 2007
Ralf Sommerlad,
Der Krokodilfachmann (continued)
PEDIGREE. Sommerlad’s
passion began to take shape around the year 1962, at the age of 10, his
nose buried in nature books, such as Alfred Brehm’s
Tierleben (Life
of Animals).
In this book and others like it, stylized depictions of nature entertain
the viewer’s sense of romance and adventure, and for this boy, captured it. Little did he know he would one day publish a nature book
of his own. One
group of animals caught the young reader's attention: “I found that the description
of the life of crocodiles was very short,” he said. “I knew about a
Nile croc existing and an American alligator existing, and there should
be a couple of crocodiles besides them, but – no information. So I
tried to find out: What’s going on with these crocodiles?” His focus then steered toward herpetology. His home menagerie was soon stocked with frogs, newts, salamanders, then snakes, like the Garter and Water kinds, and caimans, those South American cousins of the alligators. Reptile keeping was not a usual hobby for German kinder. Dogs, cats and birds were the standard pets in Europe, not scaly serpentine creatures. “I was an
exotic.” His
parents’ reaction? “They were shocked, but they tolerated everything
till the first snake escaped. I had some increasing problems, but they
tolerated it. They discouraged me from keeping them,” he recalled.
“My mother and father had never been interested in reptiles so they
found their interest in reptiles with me.” This
is not to mean that he was buried in his herpetological endeavors. He tried to hold life in
balance, maintaining his friendships and pursuing the attention of
pretty girls, part of his “life beside of crocodilians.” But
Sommerlad
was determined to become an expert, to absorb information; he
scoured the pet shops to acquire and observe reptiles, and joined "herp" societies. It was at this time, through his
new membership in
the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Herpetologie und Terrarienkunde (DGHT),
that he met the man he would ultimately consider to be his lifelong
friend and mentor, noted herpetologist Ludwig Trutnau, who was about 17
years his senior. One can imagine the influence on a budding
herpetologist of a man who was accustomed to keeping hundreds of snakes
in his cellar. “I
got into contact with him, asking him some questions about snake
husbandry, and he invited me in his house, where I saw several
hundred...extremely rare kept snakes, some of them for the first time in my
life, and five adult American Alligators, one adult Siamese croc, P.
trigonatus [Smooth-fronted Caiman], one Nile [crocodile] in a great
enclosure in his glasshouse, a breeding group of Clemmys insculpta
[Wood Turtle]. It was amazing. It became a very close friendship in
the later years, and we both are planning getting to Paraguay for some
‘herping’ in 2008.” “So
friendship was a natural thing,” said Trutnau. “Ludwig
is one of these fascinating persons you rarely meet," described
Sommerlad. "He is not only
enthusiastic; he is one of the most experienced reptile keepers I ever
met in my life. A person you will never meet again, very special. We
became very good, close friends over the years.” “Ralf’s contributions
to herpetology were very good. He kept animals as I do and so he learned
much of their behavior,” said Trutnau. Trutnau
wasn’t the only influence on a young zoologist. Entering to zoological
community in Germany was significant in this part of the world, for here
was the land of elaborate zoological parks founded in the 19th
and 20th centuries, such as in the cities of Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg and
Stuttgart. About the time Sommerlad was born, the Berlin Zoo boasted the
largest and most important animal collection in the world. Most
importantly, his country was the birthplace of the modern zoo.
Deutschland was in 1907 the launch pad of animal dealer and
impresario Carl
Hagenbeck’s Tierpark in Hamburg, whose groundbreaking, panoramic,
naturalistic exhibits changed zoos forever, influencing virtually every
animal park in the world, from the new exhibits at London Zoo in 1914,
right up to the opening of the lavish and costly Disney’s Animal
Kingdom in Florida in 1998. One might say, given the Big Picture,
Sommerlad was in the right place, and at the right time. So the lad of ample pedigree tried to map out his burgeoning career. “My
dream was to work as a veterinarian.”
He attended state approved secondary school, the Gymnasium, where
admission was subject to Numerus clausus, a restrictive quota on
the number of pupils accepted. Only from here could he graduate to a
university where he could study veterinary medicine. He recalled that he
was required to learn Latin, but never got very far with it. And in
order to proceed to his vet studies, he would have to achieve a 1.2
grade score, “which was absolutely impossible to reach, for me. I was
never perfect.” He
ceased his formal studies by the age of 20, impatient to exit the
classroom and enter the field. He chose to apply for employment as a
zookeeper at Zoo Frankfurt, a destination he frequented. He was pleased to learn after his acceptance that as a new employee he was
required to fulfill an educational phase before being considered for
promotion, which would require him to work with every kind of animal at
the zoo, including “chimps, elephants, birds, big cats,
crocodilians.” At
the Frankfurt zoo Sommerlad met the man he would consider to be his
other mentor, the world famous conservationist and zoologist Bernard
Grzimek (pronounced JIMM-eck). Grzimek was director of the zoo,
an accomplished scientist and writer who even won a 1959 Hollywood
Academy Award for his conservationist documentary film Serengeti
Shall Not Die. His film was based on his best-selling book of the
same name; together the film and book are credited as the driving force
behind the creation of Africa’s Serengeti National Park. “When
I was a child,” explained Sommerlad, “I saw Bernhard Grzimek in his
monthly TV show, A Place for Animals, where he reported about
conservation issues and the threats for the wildlife, in a very engaged
and special way. His book, Kein Platz für
Wilde Tiere
[No Space for Wild Animals] became the bible of my youth; and the
movies he did together with his son Michael were wonderful – and
shocking at the same time – very different to the very popular films
of Disney. “I
first got in personal touch with Professor Grzimek as a teenager and found
him very friendly and helpful. These personal and written contacts
lasted for several years. He also helped me a lot to get the job at the
zoo.
“Later, when I worked
for the zoo, Grzimek was…a very prominent person and not very often in
Frankfurt because of his different work beside of leading the zoo. I was
a little keeper, and we did not have close contacts, but I think he
liked me.” At
Frankfurt the young man would work throughout the menagerie of beasts,
but his attention was naturally drawn to the reptiles, especially the
crocodilians. “When
I started to work at the zoo – one example: I worked at the elephant
house and when I had a break everyday I went to see the crocs, and I
wanted to know what the crocs are doing. My goal was working at the
reptile house, mainly because of the crocs.” He
was elated when he was assigned to work with the crocodilians, at least nine
different species, including a rare, slender-snouted one he would become
specially acquainted with in his future, Tomistoma schlegelii,
the Malayan Gharial. He
recalled one pool containing seven crocs, and a large and very
aggressive American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus), an animal that
no doubt enhanced the young man’s respect for the dangerous aspect of
crocodiles. His five years at the zoo would further prepare him for his
adventures ahead. Another
of his exemplars was Russian-born Robert Mertens, the world famous
herpetologist and curator of the well-known Senckenberg Museum in
Frankfurt. “He really did spend time for some eye-to-eye talks with
this young guy who could not get enough of the crocodile skull
collection at the museum. And he showed me my first live Tuatara.” (In
unfortunate irony, Mertens died in 1975 after being bitten while feeding
a captive venomous Savanna Twig Snake.) Apparently,
for the “exotic” German boy, given the persons and institutions of
his own country – indeed, his own city - Frankfurt was not a bad place
to be. When
he called it quits at Zoo Frankfurt after five years, it was not for
want of a more interesting job; the worldly reality of economic
necessity prompted him. “I stopped because I wasn’t able to survive
with the money I earned. It was absolutely low at this time…this is
much better today; but …I wanted to live by myself…go out of the
family’s house. I wasn’t able to do that by my salary at the zoo. So
I started in the insurance business, but I didn’t stop caring for
crocodilians, because I was fascinated by crocs.” He set out into the insurance business to earn his livelihood, and intensified his study of crocs. “I
tried to find out how the crocs lived in the wild. So I tried to travel
everywhere in the world to see crocodilians, especially to Florida,
because Florida was the cheapest and easiest way to see crocodiles in
the world. I was absolutely amazed by a lot of American Alligators here,
and later, the American Crocodiles, of course.” Florida is, arguably,
the herpetological capitol of the world, with its plethora of commercial
traders and breeders, private keepers, zoos, and reptile parks, all set
in a warm, subtropical tourist Mecca.
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Nile crocodiles from Tierleben, by Alfred Brehm.
Trutnau. (Photo: Courtesy of R. Sommerlad.)
This early poster for Carl Hagenbeck's Tierpark in Hamburg, Germany features sensational imagery, and the caption, "The Large Ape Rock."
The lavish Gesellschaftshaus ("Society House") of Zoo Frankfurt.
Grzimek, with chimpanzees.
Crocodylus acutus, the American Crocodile. (Photo: I. Dupont)
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