A crocodile park, one of the first in the Middle East region, will open in Dubai by year-end, according to Dubai Municipality.

Located near Mushrif Park, close to the Dubai Safari project, the park, covering an area of 20,000 square metres, will create a natural habitat for crocodiles. Construction began last year.

In a tweet, Dubai Media Office said Dubai Municipality had completed 75 per cent of the Dubai Crocodile Park, which is set to open end of 2016.

Hussein Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality, told Al Khaleej newspaper that the first park of its kind the Arab world and will include many crocodiles including Nile crocodiles that live in fresh water around the world.

He said the crocodile park will be an environmental reserve providing the best transportation and nutrition conditions, health and follow-up of the crocodiles for breeding and will contribute to the preservation of this species in accordance with the CITES convention to protect endangered animals.

Dubai Safari Park

In July 2016, the Municipality said that work on Dubai Safari Park was 75 per cent completed and was scheduled for completion by end of 2016.

It aspires to become one of the five best safari parks in the world over the next five years and is preparing its facilities to accommodate more than 10,000 visitors a day.

The park, covering an area of 119 hectares in the Al-Warqa Fifth district, is being built at an estimated cost of around Dh1 billion and aims to establish the best wildlife center in the region.

It will replace Dubai Zoo which is currently located in the Jumeirah area. All of the existing 1,000 animals and birds will be taken from the current zoo to the site of the new project, where they will be housed in new temperature-controlled cages, the Municipality said.

Source: emirates247.com