Factors influencing nesting of Crocodylus porosus on a Queensland farm

Commercial crocodile farming in Queensland is based on a "captive breeding" system in which farms maintain breeding pairs/colonies to produce all of their animals. The Queensland Department of Primary Industries has developed a computer data base package called CROCTEL for farmers to record production information in a standardized format and generate summary statistics. Data from the Hartley's Creek farm in North Queensland provides the most useful long-term information recorded so far, from 28 females over nine breeding seasons. This data has been analysed using a least squares method to estimate the relative influences of the laying female, different micro-environments within the farm, and season, on nesting rates, time of nesting, and reproductive efficiency (number of hatchlings produced in a season divided by the number of breeding female crocodiles on the farm).