St. Augustine Alligator Farm becomes first U.S. zoo to breed endangered Indian gharial
Oh, this news is bigger than the headline
suggests. You see, because while gharials have been hatched out in
captivity in their native Nepal and India (where they are used in
reintroduction programs), this marks the first ever hatching of this species of
highly-endangered crocodilian anywhere outside of their native range countries.
You could think of
gharials as being like the pandas of the reptile world. Like pandas, only
a tiny handful of zoos display them. Like pandas, they are a taxonomic
oddity, distinct from their closest relatives in behavior and anatomy.
And like pandas, they are endangered... though gharials are more the more
endangered of the two.
When I visited St. Augustine for the first time, some of
their reptile keepers were describing to me the set-up that they were hoping to
use to coax their gharials into breeding. I'm glad to see that their
plans were met with success. Hopefully, this will be the first of many,
and captive-bred gharials from the US can be used to supplement the wild
populations of India and Nepal.
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