Post by Ceratodromeus on Feb 13, 2017 6:36:47 GMT 5
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Crocodylia
Family: Crocodylidae
Subfamily: Crocodylinae
Genus: Crocodylus
Species: C.siamensis
Biology
Despite conservation concerns, many aspects of C. siamensis life history in the wild remain unknown, particularly regarding its reproductive biology.
Adults feed mainly on fish and snakes, but also eat amphibians and small mammals.
Very little is known about the natural history of this species in the wild, but females build mound-nests constructed from scraped-up plant debris mixed with mud. In captivity, these crocodiles breed during the wet season (April to May), laying between 15 and 50 eggs, which are then guarded until they hatch. After incubation, the female will assist her young as they break out of their eggs and then carry the hatchlings to the water in her jaws.
Conservation concerns
The main threat to the species' survival is human interaction, through habitat degredation and poaching.
The current situation of C. siamensis represents a significant improvement from the status reported in the 1992 Action Plan (effectively extinct in the wild), but poses major new challenges for quantitative survey and effective conservation action if the species is to survive. While the species remains critically endangered, there is a sufficient residual wild population, albeit severely fragmented across several areas and countries, to provide a basis for recovery.
The Siamese crocodile is relatively unthreatening to people (compared to C. porosus), and the possibility of people and crocodiles coexisting in natural settings seems possible. The powerful economic force of the commercial industry based on C. siamensis also needs to be mobilised and channelled for conservation advantage. Considerable effort and action is still required, but the species has a reasonable chance of survival if the necessary actions can be implemented.
Yayasan Ulin (The Ironwood Foundation) is running a small project to conserve an important wetland habitat in the area of East Kalimantan which is known to contain the crocodiles. Most of them, though, live in Cambodia, where isolated, small groups are present in several remote areas of the Cardamom Mountains, in the southwest of the country, and also in the Vireakchey National Park, in the northeast of the country.
In Cambodia Fauna and Flora International and the Government of Cambodia's Forestry Administration have established the Cambodian Crocodile Conservation Programme for the protection and recovery of Siamese crocodiles. This programme works with a network of indigenous villages who are helping to protect key sites such as Veal Veng Marsh (Veal Veng District), the Tatai River (Thmar Bang District) and the Araeng River. The latter is considered to have the second largest population of Siamese crocodiles in the world, but is currently threatened by the proposed construction of a massive dam in the river. During the heavy monsoon period of June–November, Siamese crocodiles take advantage of the increase in water levels to move out of the river and onto large lakes and other local bodies of water, returning to their original habitat once water levels start receding back to their usual levels.
The Cambodian Crocodile Conservation Programme conducted DNA analysis of 69 crocodiles in Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre in Cambodia 2009, and found 35 of them were purebred C. siamensis. Conservationists from the Forestry Administration and Fauna and Flora International subsequently launched a conservation breeding program at the Centre. Since 2012, approximately 50 purebred Cambodian Siamese crocodiles have been released into community-protected areas to reinforce the depleted wild populations.
Poaching is a severe threat to this species, with the value of wild Siamese crocodiles reaching hundreds of dollars in the black market, where they are illegally taken into crocodile farms and hybridized with other, larger species.[22] The total wild population is unknown, since most groups are in isolated areas where access is extremely complicated. A number of captively held individuals are the result of hybridization with the saltwater crocodile, but several thousand "pure" individuals do exist in captivity, and are regularly bred at crocodile farms, especially in Thailand.
Pang Sida National Park in Thailand, near Cambodia, has a project to reintroduce Siamese crocodile into the wild. A number of young crocodiles have been released into a small and remote river in the park, not accessible to visitors.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is working with the government of Lao PDR on a new programme to save this critically endangered crocodile and its wetland habitat. In August, 2011, a press release announced the successful hatching of a clutch of 20 Siamese crocodiles. These eggs were then incubated at the Laos Zoo. This project represents a new effort by WCS to conserve the biodiversity and habitat of Laos’ Savannakhet Province, promotes conservation of biodiversity for the whole landscape, and relies on community involvement from local residents.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siamese_crocodile
