TheChinese alligator or Alligator is one of two known living speciese of Alligator, a genus in the family Alligatoridae. The Chinese alligator is native only to China. It is smaller thatn the other alligator species, the American alligator, growing to an average of 1.5m. While it originally tanged through much of China, this species' wild habitat has been reduced to little more than a few ponds containing a small number of animals( fewer than 200 individuals, onkly approcimately 50n of which are mature) along the lower Yangtze River in the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui. In the past decate, very few wild nests have been found, and even fewer produced viable offspring. "In the past few centuries, the number of Uangtze alligator has dropped dramatically", explained Xie Yan, a quiet and unassuming woman who is the current director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's China office. Tasha Eichenseher, the writter of the article which posted upon National Geographic Daily New, said she was not prepared for was to learn that the species is perilously near ectinction. She wanted to identify the root causes for the species disappearance first, and she was told that the disappearance began over fifty years ago. "The main reason was the reclamation of lakes during the 1950s and 1960s. Farmers considered alligators as vermin, which ate their fish and opther aquatic animals. With the increase of population and the area of farmland, the alligators' habitat became smaller. People did not like to have dangerous species around, so the number of alligators drooped dramatically in 1950s and 1960s." During the 1970s and 1980s, numbers continued to drop as the Chinese alligators' habitats shrank even further. The decline reached its peak at the end of the 1990s when, in 1998, the biggest habit for Yangtze crocodile was one small pond surrounded by farmland. there were only 11 crocodiles in the pond. This rapid decline in the 1980s and 1990s spurred the government into action and along with the ARCAR, a mass breeding program was launched.
Even though some parks were used to protected the alligators, and the 'wild enclosure' replicated the alligators' natural habitat. As the amount of wetlands across China continues to decrease, the question remains. Maybe it ever be possible to reintroduce so many alligators into the wild when their natural habitats have been all but destroyed. "Wetlands paly a very important role in preserving biodiversity... the will-preserved wetland will be the home of the Yangtze alligator in the future."
For the time being, it appears the captive bred population fo Chinese alligators is safe. The same cannot be said, however, for the wild population. So to protect the real home of them -- wetland, is the most important things. The slow process of reintroduction means the future of the wild Chinese alligator is still well and truly in the balance.
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