Thursday, June 10, 2010

Endangered crocodiles hatched in Cambodia

Siamese crocodile (Photo: J. Holden)

Thursday, June 10, 2010

By OUK NAVOUTH and JERRY HARMER
AP


PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Conservationists in Cambodia are celebrating the hatching of a clutch of eggs from one of the world's most critically endangered animals.

Thirteen baby Siamese crocodiles crawled out of their shells over the weekend in a remote part of the Cardamom Mountains in southwestern Cambodia, following a weekslong vigil by researchers who found them in the jungle.

Experts believe as few as 250 Siamese crocodiles are left in the wild, almost all of them in Cambodia but with a few spread between Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam and possibly Thailand.

The operation to protect and hatch the eggs was mounted by United Kingdom-based Fauna and Flora International, for whom conservation of this once-abundant species is a key program.

"Every nest counts," program manager Adam Starr told Associated Press Television News. "To be able to find a nest is a very big success story, to be able to hatch eggs properly is an even bigger success story."

The nest, with 22 eggs inside, was discovered in the isolated Areng Valley. Fauna and Flora International volunteers removed 15 of them to a safe site and incubated them in a compost heap to replicate the original nest. They left seven behind because they appeared to be unfertilized.

A round-the-clock guard was mounted to keep away predators like monitor lizards. Last weekend the crocodiles began calling from inside the shells, a sure sign they were about to hatch.

Within hours 10 emerged — and a further surprise was in store. Three of the eggs left behind at the original nest also hatched. A field coordinator, Sam Han, discovered the squawking baby crocodiles when he went to recover a camera-trap from the site.

"When I first saw the baby crocodiles they stayed and swam together near the near site. They were looking for their mother," he said. He snapped a few photos of the hatchlings, their noses poking out of the water.

To cap the success, the camera-trap yielded two infrared shots of the mother crocodile returning to the nest.

The reptiles are now being kept in a water-filled pen in a local village in the jungle-covered mountain range. The indigenous Chouerng people who live there revere crocodiles as forest spirits and consider it taboo to harm them. It's likely they'll be looked after for a year before being released into the wild.

But the euphoria is tempered by hard-edged reality. This part of the Areng Valley has been earmarked for a major hydropower project. The conservation group is looking for other areas of similar habitat to release the juveniles when the time comes.

"To put these crocodiles back into the Areng Valley could spell certain doom for them," Starr said.

The Siamese crocodile has suffered a massive decline over the last century, because of a high demand for its soft skin. Commercial breeders also brought them to stock farms where they crossed them with larger types of crocodile, producing hybrids which further reduced numbers of the pure Siamese.

In 1992 it was declared "effectively extinct in the wild" before being rediscovered in the remote Cardamoms in Cambodia eight years later.

Siamese crocodiles take 15 years to reach sexual maturity, complicating efforts to revive the population. Only a handful of the 13 new crocs are likely to survive long enough to make a long-term impact on numbers.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Always Siamese crocodile ?
How come Siamese crocodiles live in our country Cambodia.
As we all knew, crocodile existed long time before our Country Cambodia, and Cambodia is also older than Siam.

Anonymous said...

While Cambodia is the hot spot for endangered species, none of the species have Cambodia origin.

Anonymous said...

@ 3:23 PM You are absolutely right.
I bet American named most everything of Khmer to Siamese because of the Siam-American King Bhumibol born in USA.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the Thai name everything Thai or Siam. This endanger croc is found in Cambodia but they name is Siamese Croc, why the hell is that!!

Anonymous said...

Let's us calling them baby Krei Thong :)Yep. Krei Thong my boys and girls. Awesome!

Battambang

Anonymous said...

Yeah ta hell with the siamese crap.

Anonymous said...

the scientific community should rename this crocodile to honory cambodia where majority of these croc existed today.

Anonymous said...

It's probably due to the predominance of the English language now and also at the time of 'discoveries' made during the colonial period and beyond when Siam was heavily in the sway of Anglo-American influence while the French had control over Indochina. French naturalists might have named a few things as Khmer, but their language is itself an endangered species on the world stage.

Cambodia, unlike Siam or Thailand, also had had to endure long periods of isolation - 17th, 18th, 19th, and the greater part of the 20th centuries saw the country submerged by neighbouring states, colonisation, communism and currently neo-colonialism respectively.

To reclaim Khmer identity one would have to reclaim Khmer sovereignty first.

Remember the Thais still refer to Khmer ruins and monuments as 'Hindu temples' while the Vietnamese still deny Khmer roots in the Mekong Delta or Kampuchea Krom!


School of Vice

Anonymous said...

Some crocodiles must have escaped from Hun Xen's pond where he keeps a lot of them to help him kill those who act against him.

Anonymous said...

Ok! call ah Kwack " One eye evil of Cambodia!"

Anonymous said...

2:36AM! you mean YOUN Vietnamese??????

Anonymous said...

How about Khmer beggar

Anonymous said...

Ah Syam hookers and full of gays people.

Anonymous said...

Pls stop calling them Siamese crocodiles! Instead, call them like Cardamon crocodile or something else.

Anonymous said...

Thai thieves steal Khmer property and named to Siam thieves and that's why Siam thieves were gone to join Tai thieves in Nanchao now Yunnan in China.

Anonymous said...

LET ME GIVE A NEW NAME,(CROCODILES HUN SEN).IN CASE, IF SOMEONE IS WILLING TO BE AGAINST THE KHMER PREMIER THEN THEY WILL BE PUNISHED BY FEEDING THEM TO THE HUN SEN`S CROCODILES.IT SOUND GOOD MY MEN!!!!.ESPECIALLY,THE SIAMESES PREMIER(ABHISHIT VIJA MY ASS!).

Anonymous said...

ល្អហើយ សត្វនៅស្រុកខ្មែរសោះ
វាមានឈ្មោះថា ជាក្រពើសៀម
​​​ ហើយជា ផ្សោតអីរ៉ាវត្តី

Anonymous said...

What's the different between Phnom Deng Rek and Cardamon? I'm new into this and never heard of Cardamon.