DHAKA — In a breakthrough in saltwater crocodile conservation within the nation, Bangladesh has began utilizing a satellite tv for pc tagging system to observe the species’ actions, habits, and life span within the Sundarbans mangroves. These mangrove forests are the animal’s solely wild habitat in Bangladesh.
On March 13, Bangladesh Forest Division, for the primary time in Asia, hooked up satellite tv for pc tags on two saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) and launched them within the mangrove waters of the Sundarbans. Just a few days later, the identical course of was repeated on two extra people.
Two Australian crocodilian specialists — Ruchira Somaweera, analysis scientist at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Analysis Organisation (CSIRO) and an adjunct lecturer at Murdoch College, and Paul Beri, principal ranger of Queensland Parks and Wildlife Companies — assisted in tagging the crocodiles and educated the forest officers in tagging and monitoring.
Bangladesh’s forest division and IUCN Bangladesh are collectively implementing the mission with help from the Built-in Administration of the Sundarbans Mangroves and the Marine Protected Space (MPA) Swatch of No Floor in Bangladesh (SoNG), initiated by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), on behalf of Germany’s financial system and growth ministry.
Mihir Kumar Doe, Conservator of Forests (Khulna Circle), mentioned there’s a sizeable inhabitants of untamed saltwater crocodiles within the Sundarbans at the moment because the forest division has launched round 200 saltwater crocodiles to the mangroves since 2016 from its Karamjol Crocodile Breeding Centre in jap Sundarbans.
“However we have no idea the survival fee of the launched crocodiles and whether or not the habitat is appropriate for them,” Doe added.
He mentioned that utilizing the satellite tv for pc tags, they’re gathering information concerning the crocodiles’ habitat, vary and lifecycle, including that these information will proceed to be useful in crocodile conservation administration sooner or later.
From the information of the 4 tagged saltwater crocodiles — one from the wild and three from captivity launched into the wild — the researchers and the forest division officers goal to grasp the species’ habits, determine their nesting hotspots, their ecology, mortality fee and habitat vary, and acquire information on human-crocodile conflicts.
ABM Sarwar Alam, program supervisor of IUCN Bangladesh, advised Mongabay that yet another wild crocodile will likely be tagged with a satellite tv for pc transmitter quickly.
Somaweera mentioned that this mission makes Bangladesh the primary Asian nation to deploy satellite tv for pc tags on crocodiles and solely the second on the planet after Australia.
Alam mentioned the US-made satellite tv for pc transmitters they’re utilizing had been specifically manufactured contemplating the salty situations and that they’re offering information precisely each hour.
“The 4 crocodiles tagged with transmitters are completely doing properly. Three are roaming in several rivers and canals of the Sundarbans however one crocodile went out of the mangrove forest, in Barishal. Nevertheless, satellite tv for pc information exhibits that it’s now returning to the Sundarbans after travelling 150 kilometres [93 miles] in first 10 days,” he mentioned.
Alam mentioned the Bangladesh authorities has had no correct crocodile conservation plan proper now and that the satellite tv for pc information will play an necessary position within the reptile’s conservation. The house vary of the saltwater crocodiles could possibly be recognized inside one 12 months after inspecting the information acquired by the satellite tv for pc transmitters.
“As soon as we determine the house vary and inhabitants of the crocodiles, the forest division will have the ability to put together a correct conservation plan for the saltwater crocodiles,” he added.
Threats to saltwater crocodiles within the Sundarbans
The inhabitants of untamed saltwater crocodiles is lowering as a result of rising anthropogenic strain from tourism and the water transport system that passes by the core areas of the Sundarbans.
Industrial exploitation the crocodiles for his or her skins till the Nineteen Seventies depleted the species’ inhabitants in Bangladesh. Beneath the Wildlife (Safety and Safety) Act 2012, the saltwater crocodile is now a protected species within the nation, however the remaining inhabitants faces a variety of anthropogenic threats within the Sundarbans. Searching stays a serious menace to the crocodile since poachers are nonetheless energetic within the Sundarbans, based on a 2018 research.
Round 3.5 million native folks enter the Sundarbans yearly to gather fish, crabs, honey and non-timber forest merchandise. The disturbance by the massive variety of useful resource collectors and cargo vessels navigating by totally different channels throughout the forest additionally disturb the crocodiles from basking within the solar.
In keeping with IUCN purple listing 2015, which counted a small inhabitants of 100-150 mature wild people present in just a few estuaries and rivers of the Sundarbans mangroves, the saltwater crocodile is critically endangered in Bangladesh. It inhabits brackish water of coastal areas and rivers alongside the coast, coastal mangrove swamp forests and visits freshwater rivers and grass swamps too.
Quotation:
Aziz, M. A., & Islam, M, A. (2018). Inhabitants Standing and Spatial Distribution of Saltwater Crocodile, Crocodylus Porosus within the Sundarbans of Bangladesh. ScienceDirect, 24, e01206. doi:10.3329/bjz.v46i1.37624
This article by Rafiqul Islam was first revealed by Mongabay.com on 22 April 2024. Lead Picture: A saltwater crocodile basking on the financial institution of a pond in Karamjol Crocodile Breeding Centre. Picture by Md Mofizur Rahaman Chowdury.
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