Six captive-bred Yangtze alligators were released into the wild
in east China's Anhui Province on Tuesday.
This is the third release of alligators. Three were released in
2003 and six in 2006, scientists from the Chinese Alligators
Breeding Research Center said.
All the alligators were released in the 1,300-hectare
Gaojingmiao State Forest Farm in Langxi County, a nature reserve
for Yangtze alligators.
"Scientists will monitor the six alligators with wireless
tracking devices for 18 months," said Wang Chaolin, vice director
of the Center.
"We will receive monitoring data round-the-clock to learn more
about their living habits and ensure their safety, but our ultimate
success depends on the creatures being able to reproduce." said Wu
Xiaobing, who is in charge of the monitoring and research work.
The Yangtze alligator, also known as Chinese alligator, live in
large numbers more than 230 million years ago. An adult Chinese
alligator measures about 2 meters in length. The reptile is
nicknamed "living fossil" and is as rare as giant panda.
"Yangtze alligators were still reasonably common in the 1980s,
but as local people turned forests into farmlands, the alligators
disappeared," said 78-year-old Hu Dahua, a resident of
Gaojingmiao.
A survey in 2005 found about 120 Chinese alligators living in
the wild, mostly in the nature reserve in Anhui Province.
Over the past two years, about 100 baby alligators are believed
to have been born in the wild, said sources with the center.
Wang said that the center was keen to see a population of at
least 500 wild Chinese alligators, adding that the center's release
activities will spur population growth.
The Chinese government has put the reptile on the top protection
list. It set up the Chinese Alligator Breeding Research Center in
1979.
Since then, the number of alligators at the center has risen
from about 200 to more than 10,000. The center said it could hatch
1,500 reptiles a year.
The Chinese alligator is now safe from extinction, according to
Wang, but is still listed as one of the most endangered creatures
in the world.
(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2007)
