|
Philippine Crocodile
 While the Philippine crocodile (Crocodylus mindorensis) was at one time widely distributed around freshwater habitats in the archipelago, there now may be no more than 100 remaining in the wild. Following World War II, populations crashed due to increased hunting for its skin, and loss of habitat. WCS has been supporting efforts to find out where these endangered crocs still live, and conduct a DNA study to determine if crocodiles from different islands in the Philippine archipelago are genetically distinct from one another. The highlight of this work has been the discovery of three previously  unknown populations of the Philippine crocodile, two in the remote foothills of the Sierra Madre Mountains on Luzon and another on Mindanao Island. There is at least one breeding pair of crocodiles in each of these areas. Although additional surveys are needed in order to obtain reliable estimates of the population size, these results underscore the critical status of the crocodiles in the wild.
|
