Four of these reptiles will be released and monitored with satellite transmitters
August 2013. Two of the world's twelve species of crocodiles live in Colombia, the spectacled caiman (Severely threatened locally) and the Critically Endangered Orinoco crocodile.
The Orinoco crocodile can reach seven feet long and is the only crocodile species whose distribution is contained in a single watershed. Although they originally lived throughout the entire area of the Orinoco, it has been endangered by indiscriminate hunting, especially 1930-1950.
"Today there are only two relic populations of these animals in the wild, in Arauca region (At the confluence of the Ele, Lipa and Cravo Rivers) and the Meta region (In the Guayabero, Duda and Losada Rivers)," says the environmental scientist Willington Martinez, of the UN's Roberto Franco Tropical Biology Station.
The Franco station has been working on plans to protect the species by developing a project to reintroduce Orinoco crocodiles into the wild; the project is being run with the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MADS). The project plans to release and monitor four Orinoco crocodiles, which have been fitted with satellite transmitters in the department of Meta.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!