A Change of Guard

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Tuesday 24 November 2009

Endangered crocodile gets new lease on life

A Siamese crocodile in the hands of a Cambodian conservationist. [ABC]
PHOTO

A Siamese crocodile in the hands of a Cambodian conservationist. [ABC]

Robert Carmichael, Connect Asia

ABC Radio, Australia

Twenty years after Siamese crocodiles were declared extinct in the wild conservation efforts in Cambodia have received a significant boost.

A breeding and release program has become more viable, with the finding that more than 30 crocodiles at a wildlife refuge outside Phnom Penh are pure bred.

Hunting danger


Siamese crocodiles once ranged widely across southeast Asia, from Indonesia to Laos, Thailand to Vietnam.

But they were hunted to the brink for their soft leather.

These days they are listed as critically endangered.

The improvement in the crocodile's official status - from extinct to critically endangered - came earlier this decade when researchers discovered several dozen Siamese crocodiles living in the wild.

Breeding program


To move the Siamese crocodile off the critically endangered list will require 500 mature adult crocodiles in the wild.

That is the object of the Cambodian Crocodile Conservation Programme, which is headed by a man called Nhek Ratanapech.

He was thrilled earlier in November when DNA tests showed that 35 crocodiles at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre outside Phnom Penh are purebred Siamese crocodiles.

It means a proposed breeding and release program stands a greater chance of success, and with that, the chances of the species avoiding extinction are improved.

"Previously we had so many crocodiles, but we didn't know which ones are pure Siamese crocodiles and which one is the hybrid one," Nhek Ratanapech says.

But hybrids cannot be introduced into the wild - restocking requires purebred Siamese only.

He says there are just 250 Siamese crocodiles left anywhere in the wild and almost all are in Cambodia.

Adam Starr heads the crocodile program at conservation NGO Fauna & Flora International.

He says the DNA test results have taken the project to a new level.

Previously the crocodile conservation program had focused on three breeding populations in the wild.

"What we're able to do now is work with a captive population that are of pure genetic stock and be able to start a breeding program and be able to reintroduce animals to areas where Siamese crocodiles once existed, but have been eradicated due to poaching."

"So it's a very exciting phase we're about to embark upon," Mr Starr says.

He cautions that this marks the first step of many that need to be taken.

And other factors will continue to conspire against the success of the crocodile program, including human encroachment and huge infrastructure schemes such as hydroelectric dams.

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