The Chinese Alligator (Alligator sinensis), the small crocodilian species that inspired the Chinese dragon, is facing grave threats in its last stronghold according to a new study.
Not only do the reptiles continue to experience negative human pressures, many people in the area where their last population resides are unaware of them, as per the research.
“Absolute levels of knowledge and experience of alligators were low, highlighting the species’ perilous status, and analysis of correlative patterns between respondents’ experiences and associated data on human-environmental interactions provides new conservation-relevant insights,” the paper noted.
The findings highlight the importance of conducting locally appropriate educational outreach activities to support the effective conservation of the species, according to the researchers.
The Chinese alligator is endemic to freshwater wetlands in eastern China. They were formerly distributed across the middle-lower Yangtze and Yellow River basins. However, the massive-scale historical conversion of this region to rice agriculture led to the restriction of the animals to habitat south of the lower Yangtze channel during the past century.
Today, wild Chinese alligators—numbering 200 individuals—are only found across a series of isolated habitat fragments (remnant natural wetlands and ponds in agricultural valleys and hills) within five counties in south-eastern Anhui Province.
“The species is now one of the rarest and most threatened crocodylians; it is recognized as a global conservation priority on the basis of unique evolutionary history and is categorized as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, with effective monitoring and threat mitigation identified as urgent management needs,” the paper noted.
The Chinese government has listed the alligator as a Class I Endangered Species since 1972, and the remnant Anhui population was protected in 1982 by the designation of the five-county National Chinese Alligator Reserve. A large ex situ population has also been established through captive breeding and is being used to bolster the wild population.
The researchers conducted an interview survey of communities within and around the National Chinese Alligator Reserve to evaluate whether local ecological knowledge could provide a baseline on the species’ local status and trends, and to understand the relationships between land-use practices and alligator presence and survival.
The results were not good.
It was found that fewer than half of the respondents (and only 54.2 per cent within the Reserve) could recognise alligators. Only 9.7 per cent (and only 14.2 per cent within the Reserve) thought that alligators had declined, and only 15.1 per cent (and only 21.8 per cent within the Reserve) had seen a wild alligator.
“The mean last-sighting dates for alligators and their eggs and nests were over 40 years earlier, with only a handful of reported sightings from the past 2 decades. These low encounter levels within the human-modified landscape of the Reserve highlight the perilous status of the species…” the researchers noted.
Although they found little evidence of people killing alligators, the researchers observed that recent reports from counties outside the Reserve suggested that alligators may occur in these landscapes. This, they felt, raised concerns about possible ongoing exploitation of alligators for food.
Even if not killed directly, wild Chinese alligators probably also remain threatened by other interactions with local people like disturbance and ingesting poisoned prey.
“Alligator sightings were more likely to be reported by respondents who did not grow crops, and eggs and nests by those who did not utilize local water sources for irrigation, suggesting that existing environmental pressures associated with agriculture may be unsustainable for alligators,” highlighted the paper.
“Our findings indicate that China's last wild alligators continue to experience negative human pressures, and current land-use practices are probably incompatible with long-term alligator survival,” the researchers added.
Using local ecological knowledge to identify land-use threats to the last wild population of the Chinese alligator Alligator sinensis has been published in the journal Oryx.