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CROCODOPOLIS world of crocodilians TM SCIENCE · CULTURE · INDUSTRY · NEWS · COMMUNICATION · CONSERVATION
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NEWS
The CROC PRESS Regular coverage of crocodilians and people in headlines worldwide.
Wes von Papineäu, News Page Editor Email: crocnews@crocodopolis.net _________________________________________________
Week of 03 February 08
"Crocodiles in Love"
Check out this week's Croc TV featurette.
06 February 08 Uttar Pradesh probing Chambal gharial deaths
India's Uttar Pradesh forest department, along with NGOs and an international team of veterinarians, has captured some gharials and is examining them to determine why so many of the endangered crocodile-like animals have died in the Chambal sanctuary.
D.N.S. Suman, chief wildlife warden of Uttar Pradesh, said: 'The death of the gharials [Indian Gharial, Gavialis gangeticus] is a matter of great concern for the state forest department. We have conducted post mortems of the dead animals and the analysis of samples from live gharials will give us parameters to compare results.' The animals were micro-chipped for future identification before being released into the river. This initiative will help establish crucial baseline data on the gharials.
Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder of Wildlife S.O.S, told IANS: 'Not only do we hope to get to the bottom of the gharial deaths, we are also creating a database on the Indian gharial which will be crucial for the long term conservation of the species in its natural habitat.'
The union ministry of environment and forests has set up a 14-member Gharial Crisis Management Group (CMG) consisting of the forest departments of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan along with representatives from the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly, Industrial Toxicology Research Centre, Lucknow, the Wildlife Institute of India and some NGOS. http://www.calcuttanews.net/story/324756
06 February 08 Reptile round-up underway In South Florida neighborhood
An update on the "Croc calls Coconut Grove, Fla. 'home'":
A South Florida reptile round-up is underway as authorities try to clear out a 5 foot/ 1.5 meter American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) from it's new home at the Coconut Grove Sailing Club.
A crocodile trapper has tried four times to catch it but has so far had no luck.
"It's not posing a threat. It's not acting aggressively...so they are not sure if they are going to be able to remove it," said Sailing Director Nick Mansbach. http://www1.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MI75760/
05 February 08 Court orders compensation For parents of boy eaten by crocodiles
A Chinese court has ordered a holiday resort and its contracted crocodile keeper to pay almost 220,000 yuan (30,560 U.S. dollars) in compensation to the parents of a nine-year-old boy who was devoured by the reptiles last year.
Liu Haiyang and others climbed over the pool fence and fired at the animals with catapults and beat them with wooden sticks.
One of the irritated animals caught Liu's clothes and dragged him into water, where he was eaten by a swarm of crocodiles.
Though the pool bore clear signs it was off-limits to visitors, the crocodile keeper was not at the site, the entrance to the area was unlocked and the fence around the pool, which was only 55 centimeters high in some sections, did little to keep out visitors, the court found.
Following the tragedy one of the reptiles was shot dead and the other 11 crocodiles were shipped to a zoo in Nanning. http://en.ce.cn/National/Local/200802/05/t20080205_14477112.shtml 05 February 08 Un parque pagará a los padres de Un niño devorado por un cocodrilo
Un tribunal de justicia de la región autónoma de Guangxi Zhuang sentenció a un parque recreativo y al vigilante encargado de los cocodrilos a pagar una compensación de 30.560 dólares (20.628 euros) a los padres del niño de nueve años que murió engullido por los reptiles en abril del año pasado. http://actualidad.terra.es/sucesos/articulo/parque_obligado_pagar_padres_nino_2228013.htm 05 February 08 Save the crocs!
A recap by an Indian paper of what is know to date by the press about the gharial deaths in the Chambal. Nothing new is offered to the readers of Crocodopolis, but it does demonstrate that the issue remains a press interest in India. http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Feb52008/environmet2008020550500.asp
04 February 08 Crikey! How Crocs Digest Animals Whole
Crocodiles are ferocious creatures that will eat snakes, buffalo, cattle and even people. New research explains crocodiles' spectacular method of digesting large meals that lets them eat 23 percent of their body weight at once, bones and all.
The secret behind this champion eating is a heart valve that crocs control neurologically, which lets blood bypass the lungs and flow through a special aorta straight to the stomach, enabling them to secrete gastric acid at rates 10 times faster than those measured in any other animal.
Crocodiles, alligators and other crocodilians all share this ability, said biologist C. G. Farmer at the University of Utah, who discovered the connection between the heart valve and digestion in research that will be detailed in the March-April issue of the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. (Journal reference: Farmer, C.G., T.J. Uriona, et al. "The Right-to-Left Shunt of Crocodilians Serves Digestion," Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 81:2) http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080204/sc_livescience/crikeyhowcrocsdigestanimalswhole http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080204133135.htm
04 February 2008 Albino alligators have new home At Florida's Silver Springs park
"This is my lucky day," said Joyce Heinemeyer, a first-time visitor to Silver Springs theme park Thursday.
She was thrilled to be among the first tourists to view one of the park's two new white alligators up close and personal, she said.
Tim Frisch, wildlife supervisor at Silver Springs, just happened to have the female gator out of the specially constructed, climate-controlled enclosure when Heinemeyer came by for a look at the new exhibit.
Frisch didn't have the gator out for long, though, because her white skin could easily get sunburned. Both of the 4-year-old, pink-eyed alligators - a male and a female - are true albinos, which are extremely rare in the wild. STORY & VIDEO http://www.ocala.com/article/20080204/FEATURES/83841205/1368/googlesitemapnews
03 January 08 Indian Gharial crisis update
The Madras Crocodile Bank in India is offering an update on the crisis involving mass deaths of Indian Gharials (Gavialis gangeticus) in the Chambal region. Read "Contiuning gharial deaths" at the bank's blog via the link below. http://madrascrocbank.blogspot.com/
04 February 08 Cane toads threaten rare Crocodile population
Ten dead Freshwater Crocodiles (Crocodylus johnsoni) have been discovered in a remote northern Australian billabong - they died from eating cane toads.
Toadbuster volunteer Sandy Boulter says the rare pygmy crocodile on Bullo River Station further west may suffer a similar fate.
"Cane toads are mighty clever, vigorous little animals and ... they are only 20 kilometres from the pygmy crocodile population." Photos at the URL following. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/04/2153535.htm 31 January 08 Gator gets sun, Boy gets Eagle Scout badge Youth builds ramp, enclosure for reptile Bertha likes to bask in the sun. But there was little sun to be found in her enclosed pen at Maryland's Plumpton Park Zoo.
Jon Brewster needed a service project to fill one of his requirements for an Eagle Scout badge.
"I didn't want to work close with Bertha," the boy scout said. "My main concern was, I didn't want to be alligator food."
Jon supervised a team of six to eight people on the sun-ramp project, but, to fulfill the requirement, all the planning and supervision had to come from him.
The Eagle Scout requirement called for the Scout to plan, develop and supply leadership for a service project benefiting a religious institution, school or community organization.
Plumpton Park Zoo fit the requirement because it is a nonprofit organization. The zoo has over 300 animals representing 80 different species. http://www.dundalkeagle.com/articles/2008/01/31/news/news03.txt
30 January 08 Croc calls Coconut Grove, Fla. 'home'
A group of Middle School students were learning how to sail at the Coconut Grove Sailing Club in Coconut Grove, Florida Wednesday, when they noticed something large swimming towards them.
The American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) was an unusual sight for both managers and students, who were only accustomed to seeing manatees, baby barracudas, or small fish swimming in the waters.
Luckily the crocodile didn't attack anyone, but managers of the club aren't taking chances, they want the scaly creature out. STORY & VIDEO: http://cbs4.com/pets/crocodile.coconut.grove.2.641978.html
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