"""20 years ago,"""" the Crocodile Farm of Pierrelatte"""" was opened by Eric and Luc Fougeirol. This site has seen several million visitors, making it the most visited tourist site in the Drôme and the second in Rhône-Alpes.In a landscaped greenhouse of 8000 m ² more than 450 animals evolve freely: crocodiles, giant tortoises of Seychelles and Galápagos (weighing from 80 to 150 kg) and tropical birds.The goal of Samuel Martin, the director, is to reach, in five years, the 4000 000 visitors by proposing more animals on a wider rangeWith the 29 permanent employees, the farm registered last year 285 000 entrances and a four million euro turnover.A new greenhouse of 1500 m ² has just been built to be able to welcome, next spring, snakes, lizards, fishes, birds and other aquatic tortoises.But the Crocodile Farm is more than a zoo: it is also a scientific research center on the reptiles, that collaborates with researchers of the whole world.To meet the demands of biological studies of French and foreign researchers, and many prestigious scientific institutions such as le College de France, the CNRS, and the National Museum of Natural History, the Crocodile Farm has established in 1998 a laboratory and a hatchery, allowing the establishment of numerous partnerships leading to the publication of articles in international scientific journals.Among them, Béatrice Thivichon-Prince, odontolgue of the University of Lyon examined the faculties of regeneration of the teeth of crocodiles. Indeed their teeth fall and grow again more of fifty times during their life. His department looks for applications has the human scale."""
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