O.-yx Vo. 33 No ? Apri: "ttO The conservation status of the Chinese alligator John Thorbjarnarson and Wang Xiaoming Abstract The Chinese alligator Alligator sinensis is one negative effects. The current conservation programme of the world's most endangered reptiles. At one time in Anhui Province is based on captive breeding and the widespread throughout much of the lower Yangzi establishment of a reserve for small groups of wild River basin, the remaining wild individuals are now alligators. However, the inferred recent decline in the restricted to a small area in southern Anhui Province size of the wild population suggests that the reserve and perhaps in adjacent Zhejiang Province. Population design is inadequate for the long-term survival of alli- estimates conducted in the 1980s suggested that only gators. Programmes to survey the status of the remain- 500-735 wild individuals remained at that time. Cur- ing wild populations and evaluate the feasibility of rent figures suggest that the wild population is c. 400 establishing new wild populations by reintroducing individuals and continues to decline. The principal captive-bred animals are currently being developed. factor contributing to historic population decline has been habitat loss, but deliberate killing of alligators and Keywords China, Chinese alligators, conservation, the heavy use of pesticides have also had significant reptiles, status. Introduction Forestry Department, and the local Forestry Bureaus in The Chinese alligator Alligator sinensis is the most en- Ma'anshan County, Anhui Province, Changxing dangered of the world's 23 species of crocodilians and County, Zhejiang Province and Yixing County, Jiangsu is listed as Critically Endangered by IUCN (1996). Lo- Province. cally referred to as Yang Zi E (Yangzi alligator) or Tu Long (muddy dragon), the alligator was once wide- spread in the lower Yangzi River valley (formerly the Past distribution Yangtze and also referred to as the Chang Jiang) and Chinese alligators were widely distributed in lowland the lower Shaoxing River (Fig. 1). Currently, it is re- areas of eastern China until the recent historical past. stricted to a few small, isolated areas in southern Anhui Chen (1990) reported Neolithic fossil evidence of Chi- Province and adjacent Zhejiang Province (Fig. 2). The nese alligators from a number of sites in eastern China Chinese Government began a conservation programme including Shandong, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Anhui in the late 1970s and early 1980s by establishing a Provinces, and suggested that global cooling may have captive breeding centre (Anhui Research Centre for played a significant role in eliminating northern Chinese Alligator Reproduction; ARCCAR) and a re- populations. serve for the protection of the remaining wild animals The long record of human history in China indicates (Thorbjarnarson, 1992). This report summarizes the that alligators were widely distributed in the lower conservation situation for Chinese alligators based on a Yangzi and Shaoxing River valleys, to approximately review of the literature, and the results of a visit to the 32°N, probably as recently as the mid-nineteenth cen- area in August 1997. During this trip the authors vis- tury (Chen et al., 1985; Chen, 1990; Jinzhong, 1994). ited the breeding centres in Anhui and Zhejiang Along the Yangzi, alligators were found from the Provinces, the National Chinese Alligator Reserve, and mouth of the river at Shanghai to as far upstream as the interviewed the staff members of the Anhui Provincial vicinity of Jiangling in Hubei Province, where the river flows through the mountainous Three Gorges region. John Thorbjarnarson (corresponding author) Wildlife Conservation Alligators were found in the extensive wetlands along Society, 185th St. and Southern Blvd., Bronx, NY 10460, USA. Fax: the river and its tributaries in Hubei, northern Hunan, + 1 718 364 4275; e-mail: [email protected] northern Jiangxi, Anhui and Jiangsu Provinces. In Zhe- Wang Xiaoming Department of Biology, East China Normal jiang Province alligators were found near the southern University, Shanghai 200062, People's Republic of China. E-mail: margin of the large Tai Hu lake as well as in the [email protected] Shaoxing River, which empties into Hangzhou Bay Received 14 January 1998. Accepted 15 October 1998 (Chen, 1990). 152 © 1999 FFI, Oryx, 33(2), 152-159 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.58, on 28 Sep 2021 at 19:29:09, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3008.1999.00051.x Tne conservation status of the Chinese alligator 153 Shanxi .... ,X Jiangsu Hangzhou ./ Hunan Fig. 1 The lower Yangzi River valley showing the reconstructed historical £..., 300 km . distribution of Chinese alligators (shaded Jiangxi area). South of the Yangzi, the alligator reportedly became valleys set among the low foothills south of the Huang extinct in the Hangzhou Bay region in AD 1201 (Chen, Shan mountains in five counties (Nanling, Jinxiang, 1990). Around Nanjing, alligators were exterminated in Guangde, Langxi, Xuancheng), which together com- the 1870s after their burrows in dykes led to wide- prise the National Chinese Alligator Reserve (see be- spread flooding. Fauvel (1879) reported that alligators low). Staff of the Anhui Forestry Department have also were found in the Yangzi near Chinkiang (= Zhenji- reported small numbers (< 5) of alligators outside the ang; Jiangsu Province) and Wuhu (Anhui Province). reserve at single sites in each of two adjacent counties Others commented to Fauvel that alligators were com- (Wuhu and Ninggua; Fig. 2). Alligators are still re- mon in the Poyang Hu lake (Jiangxi Province). Old ported in two additional areas in lowland habitat near historical references to crocodilians in Guangdong the Yangzi River. In 1995, an adult male alligator was Province (Fauvel, 1879) probably referred to the salt- found in Ma'anshan County in eastern Anhui along the water, or estuarine, crocodile Crocodylus porosus or even Yangzi River. Alligators have also been reported by Tomistoma schlegelii (Zhao et ah, 1986). In northern Zheji- villagers at one site in Dangtu County (Fig. 2). ang Province, Huang et al. (1987) reported historical In Zhejiang Province alligators may survive in records from the following counties: Changxing, Anji, Changxing County in the Tai Hu lake drainage. As Huzhou, Jiaxing, Yuhang and Hangzhou. recently as 1976, three alligators were captured in By the 1950s, the distribution of the alligator had Huzhou County and sent to Ningbo Zoo (Huang et al., been reduced to the region along the southern bank of 1987), but now alligators are reported to be extirpated the Yangzi, extending from Pengze (Jiangxi Province) to in the area. In September 1983, local residents in Anji the north-western Zhejiang and south-eastern Jiangsu County collected 18 eggs from a wild nest (Huang et al., Provinces, with the largest populations in southern 1987). Recent reports of animals in Anji County could Anhui Province (Chen, 1990, 1991). not be confirmed by the Changxing Forest Bureau staff. Staff of the Yixing County Forest Bureau (Xu Ren Yu, pers. comm.) reported that in 1995 a fisherman cap- Present distribution and population status tured a small (50-60 cm total length [TL]) alligator in Chinese alligators are now restricted to a small area in Yang Hung village, Jiangsu Province. However, no southern Anhui Province and possibly in neighbouring other reports of alligators have been received from this Zhejiang Province (Fig. 2). Watanabe (1982) suggested region for the last 10 years. that alligators were present in the most north-western Alligators are extremely secretive and hard to count. part of Jiangxi Province (Pengze) but current sources Night spotlight surveys reveal a small number of ani- indicate that alligators were extirpated from this area in mals, but many may be hidden in underground dens. the late 1950s (W. Xie, pers. comm.). Some evidence Most contemporary sightings and reports are of single also indicates that alligators may still exist in a small individuals or small groups ( < 20) at each locality. area in the extreme of south-west of Jiangsu Province Some of the best information currently available comes (see below). from reports by local residents and Forestry Depart- In Anhui, alligators are found principally in river ment staff living in the reserve. Based on interview • 1999 FFI, Oryx, 33(2), 152-159 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.58, on 28 Sep 2021 at 19:29:09, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3008.1999.00051.x 154 J. Thorbjarnarson and Wang Xiaoming 35 Province Boundary Jiangsu Province Anhui Province Huzhou Fig. 2 Map of Anhui Province showing the relative locations of nine counties Zhejiang Province where Chinese alligators survive. The only 30 other known site is in adjacent Zhejiang Province. 1, Nanling; 2, Jinxiang; 3, Ninggua; 4, Guangde; 5, Langxi; 6, Xuancheng; 7, Wuhu; 8, Dangtu; 9, Jiangxi Province Ma'anshan; 10, Changxing (Zhejiang 115 120 Province). surveys in the early 1980s, B. Chen estimated that the lowland Yangzi region (Huang, 1982; Chen, 1990), approximately 500 alligators remained in the wild resulting in the conversion of the river's floodplain into (Anon., 1991). Another more extensive survey of 129 agricultural fields. Virtually the entire area is now villages (423 bodies of water) was organized by the under cultivation (Watanabe, 1982). The last remaining Anhui Forestry Department in 1985 and 1987. It was populations of alligators in Anhui Province are in areas estimated that there were c. 735 alligators remaining in south of the Yangzi River where intensive agriculture the area of the reserve, with an additional 70 or so in did not begin until the 1950s and 1960s. Much of the adjacent Zhejiang Province (Anon., 1991).