As Ocean Park's conservation arm, Ocean Park Conservation Foundation, Hong Kong advocates, facilitates and participates in the conservation of Asian wildlife and habitats through research and education, aiming to ensure the sustainability of wildlife and biodiversity.
The following four reptiles including the Chinese alligator, Philippine crocodile, gharial and Komodo dragon are threatened by habitat loss, with only 100 to 3,000 individuals left in the wild. OPCFHK is supporting research efforts to understand their population status, prey and habitat selection to aid the development of conservation management plans.
- Critically endangered with wild population less than 150.
- Distribution: once distributed along the Yangtze River, but now limited to scattered areas in the Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces.
- Adult grows into 1.5 metres in length, weighing 36 kg.
- Research focus: to re-introduce captive Chinese alligators to the wild to replenish the wild population.
- Critically endangered with wild population around 100.
- Distribution: limited to the islands of Mindanao, Negros and Luzon.
- Growing no more than 3 metres, golden-brown in colour which darkens as it matures.
- Research focus: to monitor wild and reintroduced radio-tagged Philippine crocodiles to determine their home range and the minimum size of sanctuary.
- Critically endangered with wild population around 300.
- Distribution: Four sanctuaries in India and one national park in Nepal.
- Adult male can reach four metres, and will have a bulbous growth, "ghara" on the tips of snouts. They are olive in colour.
- Research focus: to study their population and distribution, as well as to understand the reason for mass mortalities in 2007.
- A vulnerable species with wild population around 3,000.
- Distribution: Four islands in the Komodo National Park and on the island of Flores in the Southeast Indonesia.
- The world largest lizard, reaching up to over three metres in length and weighing 165 kg.
- Key prey is the Timor deer, also prey on buffalo.
- Research focus: integrate field ecology and genetics to monitor the demography of Komodo dragon and their key prey species
Do You Know?
| 1. | Why their wild population has been dropped to just 100 to 3,000 individuals? | ANSWER |
|---|---|---|
| 2. | Why you need to support reptile conservation efforts? | ANSWER |
| 3. | How you could help on reptile conservation? | ANSWER |
