A small snout peeked out to widen the crack in the slowly fragmenting shell.
He crocodile Siamese was taking his time, after others who had already crawled out, chirping, towards the sand. Adults can measure up to 4 meters (13 feet) in length and weigh up to 770 pounds. They have few natural predators. But these hatchlings—each about the size of a hot dog New York— are vulnerable, and their chorus of high-pitched screeches was a signal for their mothers to protect them and for those who had been left behind to hurry.
Hor Vichet — a zookeeper at the breeding center for these critically endangered reptiles in Phnom Tamao, Cambodiabelonging to the conservation organization Fauna and Flora—broke the rest of the shell.
“It’s time to go out into the world”he declared.
Siamese crocodiles are in a recovery they had little chance of achieving. They used to be widespread in Southeast Asia, but demand for leather made from their skins decimated wild populations last century.. Thousands were hunted or captured to be raised on farms. By the late 1990s they were thought to be extinct.
But a study in the Cardamom Mountains of western Cambodia in 2000 found a vestige of a wild population. These cloud forests were one of the last strongholds of the Khmer Rouge guerrillas who fought the government until 1999. That, combined with the local indigenous communities’ respect for crocodiles, saved this persisting enclave. But they were still too few and too scattered for the population to recover.
Environmentalists realized that saving the species would require captive breeding of fertile, purebred crocodiles. Crocodile farmers who hunted the species to the brink of extinction now play a vital role in that effort.
There are currently about 1,000 wild Siamese crocodiles, of which approximately 400 are in Cambodia and the rest are scattered in Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Indonesia. Protecting the reptile also requires safeguarding its habitat in the Cardamom Mountains, a diverse ecosystem and one of the last remaining rainforests in Southeast Asia. It spreads over an area larger than Denmark, helping to capture planet-warming greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
The initiative is finally bearing fruit: The first crocodiles were reintroduced into the wild in 2012 and have begun breeding in their habitat. More than 100 eggs were discovered in the forests in July, the largest number so far.
“We are still far from being able to say that the species is in a good position,” acknowledged Pablo Sinovas, from Fauna and Flora. “But he is making progress.”
Environmentalists faced big challenges when they started their project in 2011. There were more than 1.5 million crocodiles languishing on farms across Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, but few were purebred. Farmers had reproduced Siamese crocodiles with larger and more aggressive species in order to obtain skins with textures that demanded fashionable brands. Releasing these mongrel crocodiles into the wild could accelerate the demise of the purebred species.
It could also pose a threat to people. Evidence of Cambodians’ respect for Siamese crocodiles endures in rough carvings on the walls of the Bayon Temple in the Angkor Wat temple complex, but the crossbreeds are not the same animals.
“That would be a problem, since some of these species are aggressive to humans. And you don’t want them to be loose in nature.”he pointed out.
Thus, experts toured crocodile farms in Cambodia, working with farmers and scientists to find purebred specimens. The few that could be located were transferred to the wildlife center in Phnom Tamao in order to reproduce in captivity. Their eggs were artificially incubated, and the first group of 18 young purebred crocodiles were released into the Cardamom Mountains, laying the foundation for reviving the species.
Crocodiles are a social species, and once they are together they find “their own hierarchy,” said Iri Gill, who handles cold-blooded animals at Chester Zoo in the United Kingdom, which supports the breeding program. Following the mating season, females lay eggs which are then placed in an artificial incubator, where humidity and temperatures are carefully monitored to replicate the conditions of a wild nest.
“That is the key stage for those young to hatch and raise them to an age where they are strong before being released,” Gill noted.
A similar captive breeding program was also instrumental in recovering crocodile populations in India after they had been nearly extinct in the early 1970s, said Yashendu Joshi, a crocodile researcher at the Center for Wildlife Studies, an agency Indian non-profit. In the wild, fewer than 1 in 20 baby crocodiles survive to adulthood. Their chances of survival increase exponentially if they are released after they grow to one meter (3.4 feet) in length.
“That is why these captive breeding programs have been operating in various parts of the world”he indicated.
Currently, demand for crocodile leather has decreased, and many of the farms have been losing money since the COVID-19 pandemic, said crocodile farmer Ry Lean.
Dozens of crocodiles sun themselves in pens around the home where the 73-year-old woman lives with her extended family. His shop sells souvenir items such as crocodile skulls stacked on shelves like books, glass cases overflowing with fangs, mounds of dried crocodile meat and lacquered bodies of baby crocodiles drying in the sun. But tourism has declined since the pandemic and rising fish prices make it difficult to feed the reptiles, Lean said.
“I’m stuck with this business and the crocodiles”he noted, noting that a large crocodile used to sell for up to $1,500. Now she’d be lucky to get 150.
Environmentalists continue to scour farms in search of purebred Siamese crocodiles. They are also working to protect habitats where young, purebred crocodiles are released. From 2001 to 2023, Cambodia lost almost a third of its tree cover, according to Global Forest Watch, a platform operated by the nonprofit World Resources Institute.
The Siamese crocodile’s role as an iconic species — chosen to represent an environmental cause similar to giant pandas in China and tigers in India — helps the cause of protecting the Cardamom Mountains, said Fauna and Flora’s Sinovas.
It makes no sense to release crocodiles into habitats that cannot support them, he added.
“Protecting the habitat is the most important part of this entire project,” he said.