'Extinct' crocodile gets new lease on life
Updated
Twenty years ago Siamese crocodiles were declared effectively extinct in the wild, hunted beyond the brink for their soft leather. But conservation efforts have received a significant boost with the news that more than 30 crocodiles at a wildlife refuge outside Phnom Penh are purebred, making a proposed breeding and release programme much more viable.
Presenter: Robert Carmichael
Speakers: Adam Starr, Fauna and Flora International; Nhek Ratanapech, director, Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre
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CARMICHAEL: SFX...That strange squeaking noise is being made by a young Siamese crocodile at a wildlife refuge centre 40 kilometres outside Phnom Penh. It's one of several dozen young crocodiles that were, until a few minutes ago, doing one of the things they do best - sunbathing. Siamese crocodiles are listed as critically endangered. If that sounds bad - which it is - it still marks an improvement from 20 years ago when the animal was declared extinct in the wild. It had once ranged widely across southeast Asia - from Indonesia to Laos, Thailand to Vietnam. 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. To move the Siamese crocodile off the critically endangered list will require 500 mature adult crocodiles in the wild. That's the object of the Cambodian Crocodile Conservation Programme, which is headed by a man called Nhek Ratanapech. He was thrilled earlier this month 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 programme stands a greater chance of success, and with that, the chances of the species avoiding extinction are improved. Nhek Ratanapech is also the director of the government-owned rescue centre. Numerous species of rescued animals are housed here, among them dozens of crocodiles. The 35 purebred Siamese were found among them. He explains why the news is so important.
NHEK RATANAPECH: Previously we have so many crocodiles but we didn't know which ones are pure Siamese crocodiles and which one is the hybrid one. Now we know exactly which one is pure and which is hybrid. And then we do hope that some potential donor help to support the activity to conserve or to stop this species being extinct from the world.
CARMICHAEL" Adam Starr heads the crocodile programme at conservation NGO Fauna and Flora International. Starr explains that hybrid crocodiles are the product of crocodile farms, where the slow-growing but soft-skinned Siamese crocodiles are cross-bred with more aggressive, faster-growing species such as saltwater crocodiles, or salties.
STARR: So if you cross-breed them with a Siamese crocodile, you don't get quite as big as the salties. But what you do get is a faster-growing, larger animal with the same kind of soft leather.
CARMICHAEL: But those hybrids cannot be introduced into the wild - restocking requires purebred Siamese only. Nhek Ratanapech says there are just 250 Siamese crocodiles left anywhere in the wild. Almost all are in Cambodia.
NHEK RATANAPECH: So this population is on the edge of extinction and now Cambodia is the stronghold of this species.
CARMICHAEL: In other words, the survival of the species in the wild relies on what happens here in Cambodia. Adam Starr says the DNA test results have taken the project to a new level. Previously the crocodile conservation programme had focused on three breeding populations in the wild.
STARR: 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 programme 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.
CARMICHAEL: So what's next? Adam Starr.
STARR: The next steps would be going out, surveying, finding the areas, working with communities in those areas and working with FA rangers in those areas as well.
CARMICHAEL: What kind of timeline would that be?
STARR: Hopefully within the next year.
CARMICHAEL: Starr 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 programme, including human encroachment and huge infrastructure schemes such as hydroelectric dams. But success is about much more than simply biodiversity. Starr points out that Siamese crocodiles are prominent in Cambodian culture - they even appear on the walls of the spectacular Angkor Wat temple in the west of the country. Nhek Ratanapech and his team want to make sure that future generations of Cambodians are able to see Siamese crocodiles in the country's rivers where they belong, and not just carved in stone.
