Environment

15 Endangered Baby Chinese Alligators Born Along Yangtze River

by Amy Judd | July 15, 2009 at 11:58 am

278 views | 22 Recommendations | 5 comments

In the wonderful world of endangered Alligator news, people have reason to rejoice today, as 15 endangered baby Chinese Alligators have been born along the Yangtze River, known for its pollution and its ability to eradicate animal species, and these are the most endagered of all the worlds' corodilians.

These 15 are the offspring of the first captive-born parents to successfully breed in the wild.

The hatchlings represent 10 years of work by the Wildlife Conservation Society and China's Department of Wildlife Conservation and Management of the State Forestry Administration, among others.

In a 1999 survey, only 130 of these animals were found in the wild, and there was some measures to reintroduce captive-bred alligators in to the wild to breed; three bred in 2003 and a dozen more from the Bronx Zoo followed quickly.

In 2008, three pairs had laid eggs, so conservationists are hoping that that these alligators will survive, desptie the Three Gorges Dam on the river, which was already responsible for the near-extinction of the Yantze River Dolphin and the Siberian Crane.

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Paschen

at 15:17 on July 15th, 2009

Reason to rejoice in deed. Thank you for the news on this.

Casey Tucker

at 17:24 on July 15th, 2009

Wild Auk Photography: www.flickr.com/photos/wild_auk_photography/collections/

Casey Tucker has contributed a photo to this story.

sara star

at 16:07 on July 18th, 2009

There is still hope.

sirhowardlee

at 23:15 on July 15th, 2009

This is a picture of a Chinese alligator that I took at the local Los Angeles zoo.
I spent the day here taking photos of various animals and this was one of them.

sirhowardlee has contributed a photo to this story.