Six Chinese alligators that were raised in captivity will be
released next month into the wild in east China's Anhui Province,
scientists said on Thursday.
The scientists will monitor the six alligators with wireless
tracking devices for 18 months, said Wang Chaolin, vice director of
the Chinese Alligators Breeding Research Center.
This will be the third release of alligators. Three were
released in 2003 and six in 2006.
The three adult Chinese alligators, two females and one male,
released into the wild in Xuanzhou prefecture of Xuancheng in 2003,
are living well and the females have hatched eggs, Wang said.
The alligators will be released in the 1,300-hectare Gaojingmiao
Tree Farm where the others were earlier released.
An adult Chinese alligator measures about 2 m in length. They
are also known as the Yangtze alligator, which have existed for 230
million years. The Chinese alligator is now safe from extinction,
according to Wang, but remains listed as one of the most endangered
creatures in the world.
The release project was approved by the State Forestry
Administration in 2000.
To protect Chinese alligators, which are under state first-grade
protection, from extinction, the Chinese government set up the
Chinese Alligators Breeding Research Center in Xuancheng, Anhui
Province, in 1979.
The number of Chinese alligators at the center has risen from
about 200 to more than 10,000. The center said it could hatch 1,500
such reptiles a year.
According to a research survey in 2005, less than 150 Chinese
alligators were believed to be living in the wild, in pockets in
east China's Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces.
Over the past two years, about 100 baby alligators are believed
to have been born in the wild bringing the number in the wild to
250, said sources with the center.
To form a stable number of wild Chinese alligators there should
be at least 500, Wang said, adding that the release activities by
the center will help their numbers rise.
(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2007)
