China re-introducing Alligators in the Wild

[Guest guest]

Good to see China turning over a new leaf (or is it?) with animal conservation

rather than feasting on them!!!!!!!! All I hope is that this alligator

re-introduction program in the wild doesn't go the `Tiger-farm' way.

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS-Environment-Flora-Fauna-New-export-to-Ch\

ina-Alligators/articleshow/4777333.cms

 

New export to China: Alligators

AGENCIES 14 July 2009, 09:18pm IST

 

NEW YORK: The Wildlife Conservation Society announced that critically endangered

alligators in China have a new chance for survival.

The WCS's Bronx Zoo has successfully reintroduced alligators into the wild that

are now multiplying on their own. (Source : WCS)

 

Bronx Zoo, in partnership with two other North American parks and the Department

of Wildlife Conservation and Management of the State Forestry Administration of

China, has successfully reintroduced alligators into the wild that are now

multiplying on their own.

 

The alligator hatchlings—15 in number—are the offspring of a group of alligators

that includes animals from the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo. The

baby alligators represent a milestone for the 10-year effort to reintroduce the

Chinese alligator on Chongming Island, located at the mouth of China's Yangtze

River.

 

The announcement was made at the International Congress for Conservation

Biology, convened by the Society for Conservation Biology in Beijing, China

(July 11-16).

 

" We are grateful to our Chinese partners for their commitment to reintroduce

Chinese alligators back into the wild, " said Dr. Steven E. Sanderson, President

and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society. " WCS has championed careful

wildlife reintroductions for more than a century. The reintroduction of Chinese

alligators is a great example of how WCS partners with governments and local

communities around the world to save wildlife and wild places. "

 

" This is fantastic news, " said WCS researcher Dr. John Thorbjarnarson, one of

the world's foremost experts on crocodilians and a participant in the project.

" The success of this small population suggests that there's hope for bringing

the Chinese alligator back to some parts of its former distribution. "

 

Plans to reintroduce Chinese alligators started in 1999 with a survey conducted

by WCS, the Anhui Forestry Bureau, and the East China Normal University in Anhui

Province, the only remaining location where the reptiles are still found in the

wild in what is a small fraction of the alligator's former range. The results of

the survey were dire, with an estimate of fewer than 130 animals in a declining

population.

 

The Yangtze River, where the reintroduction of these alligators took place, is

the third longest river in the world (after the Amazon and the Nile) and is

China's most economically important waterway. The world's largest hydro-electric

dam—the Three Gorges Dam—is also located on the river. The high levels of

development along the river have become a challenge for native wildlife; in

2006, a comprehensive search for the Yangtze River dolphin, or baiji, didn't

find any, although one isolated sighting of a dolphin was made in 2007.

 

The project is being supported by the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation, Hong

Kong.