Siamese crocodiles were once on the verge of extinction, but their numbers have been steadily growing in recent years. The future of these near-extinct reptiles is looking brighter after 60 baby Siamese crocodiles hatched at Cambodia’s Cardamom National Park.
After over two decades of efforts to revive the numbers of Siamese crocodiles in the remote Cardamom Mountains, things finally started looking up back in May. Five crocodile nests were discovered by the locals in Cambodia’s Cardamom National Park, and they finally hatched in late June.
66 out of 106 eggs in the nests were fertilized, and a total of 60 Siamese crocodile eggs successfully hatched. This number is quite impressive, and it marks a hatching record for the endangered species in this century.
Pablo Sinovas, the country director for the Cambodia program of Fauna and Flora, discussed the amazing news with The New York Times and described them as a huge win for the biodiversity of this region.
“There’s a biodiversity crisis around the world, but in the tropics of Southeast Asia it’s particularly acute. The fact that we’ve been able to help these crocodiles recover and see this landmark breeding event, it’s very significant,” he explained.
Siamese crocodiles came very close to being fully extinct until Fauna and Flora International and the Government of Cambodia’s Forestry Administration joined forces to raise their numbers, and this program has successfully let 196 Siamese crocs back into the wild.
