Crocodile 'nanny' brings reptile back from brink in El Salvador

Crocodile 'nanny' brings reptile back from brink in El Salvador

01 Jul 2015



The hungry baby crocodiles wriggle in Jose Antonio Villeda's hand. One by one, he squeezes open their jaws and uses a plastic tube to prod pieces of fish down their gullets.

Villeda is a park ranger working to save the local population of Crocodylus acutus, also known as the American crocodile, here in the mangroves of the Barra de Santiago nature reserve on El Salvador's Pacific coast.

Once a common site on muddy riverbanks and in the water, numbers crashed as a result of hunting.

"They were massively sought by hunters who wanted their skin," said Villeda, 53.

At one point in the 1980s, only five of the scaly creatures remained.

From 1990, rangers at this popular park started to monitor nesting sites of the few remaining crocs. Conservation efforts were complicated, at least initially.

About 26,000 people live on the reserve and many of the ranches and homes in the area exhibit stuffed crocodiles as trophies. Impoverished locals collect molluscs and crabs and, during nesting season, will also take crocodile eggs to eat.

- Crocodile 'nanny' -

Villeda now knows a lot about crocodile reproduction, and six years ago, thanks to educational outreach efforts, locals started to bring him any eggs they found.

More:
http://www.afp.com/en/news/crocodile-nanny-brings-reptile-back-brink-el-salvador