Efforts continue to save endangered Chinese alligators

The breeding program in Anhui began in 1979, when the province's wildlife protection authorities captured 212 wild alligators and placed them under human supervision.

"The work was anything but easy; we had to learn how to feed them, to incubate the eggs, to feed the fragile newborn reptiles, help them live through the winter and assist them to produce offspring", said Wang, listing the difficulties the center had to overcome in the first 10 years.

The team's efforts didn't bear fruit until 1988, when human-bred alligators laid the first hatchable eggs, according to the 55-year-old, who has worked at the reserve since 1986 and was an alligator breeder until 2007.

In 2001, when an international seminar on alligator protection was held in Hefei, the capital of Anhui, it was decided that the reserve should release a number of alligators that had been bred in captivity to raise the number in the wild and provide better protection for the species.

So, in 2003, three alligators were released into the wild, quickly producing offspring.

Efforts and challenges

"Although the trial was successful, the practice was opposed by some rural residents, who believed the animals would threaten their safety and that of their livestock," Wang said.

Usually, Chinese alligators, which are mild-mannered and rarely attack humans, attain an adult length of just 1.5 meters and weigh 30 to 40 kilograms. They are fully armored, even across the belly which has more bones and is harder than other crocodile species, making the animal less valuable to poachers.

In 1981, the forestry authorities in Anhui established a team of experts from China and the US to conduct a three-month investigation into the alligators' living conditions.

After the survey, the team estimated there could be as many as 300 to 500 alligators in the wild, and though they were mainly found in Anhui, small numbers were also located in the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

"Nowadays, more than half of the human-bred alligators in China are in the reserve in Anhui, and most of the wild ones also live in the province. Only a few are found in neighboring Zhejiang," Wang said. In 1982, a 43,300-hectare provincial-level reserve was established to better protect the species, and was upgraded to national level the following year. A second study, conducted in 1985, showed that more than 400 wild reptiles lived in the reserve.

However, an inquiry launched by the reserve and the Wildlife Conservation Society in 1999 found that there were fewer than 145 alligators in the wild. In 2004, an investigation concluded that there were about 120 adult wild alligators in Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangsu－although it proved impossible to determine the number of newly hatched reptiles－with the majority located in Anhui. Meanwhile, a 2005 investigation in Anhui estimated there were 92 to 114 adult wild alligators in the province, along with 66 immature individuals.