Detroit Zoo-Bred Siamese Crocodiles to be Released in Cambodia

Ten Siamese crocodile hatchlings were transferred to a facility in Florida, where an adult pair will foster them until they’re ready to be released in Cambodia. (Photo via Wikimedia/Creative Commons)

The Detroit Zoo is helping bolster the numbers of a critically endangered species that is rapidly disappearing.

The zoo has been breeding Siamese crocodiles at its Holden Reptile Conservation Center. Ten hatchlings of the medium-sized reptile were transferred last month to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in Florida, which specializes in crocodile care and conservation.

There, they will be fostered by an adult pair of Siamese crocodiles until they are ready for release to their natural habitat in Cambodia, marking the first time captive-bred Siamese crocodile hatchlings will be released in the wild.

“Our conservation efforts have led not only to the successful breeding of Siamese crocodiles but to the addition of zoo-born crocodiles to a critically small wild population – which hopefully will help save the species from extinction,” Scott Carter, chief life sciences officer at the Detroit Zoological Society, said in a statement.

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The Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis) is a medium-sized crocodilian found in the wetlands and waterways of Southeast Asia. There are estimated to be around 250 adult Siamese crocodiles remaining in the wild.

The decline of the species is due to habitat loss, degradation of the habitat by humans and the poaching of both crocodiles and their eggs for farms and the skin trade.

The Detroit Zoo’s breeding effort for Siamese crocodiles is part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ (AZA) Species Survival Plan (SSP), a cooperative management program that ensures genetically healthy, diverse and self-sustaining populations of threatened and endangered species. Three Siamese crocodiles that hatched at the zoo in 2008 now live in other AZA-accredited zoos as part of the SSP program.

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In the most recent breeding event at the Detroit Zoo, the female Siamese crocodile laid 22 eggs in a nest she constructed of soil and vegetation.

Half of the eggs were removed from the nest and placed into incubators, while the remaining eggs were left in the nest. Over several days in early June, six crocodiles hatched in the nest and five in the incubators.

“We didn’t want to put all of our eggs in one basket, so to speak,” Carter said, adding that the Zoo’s Holden Reptile Conservation Center provides conditions conducive to hatching for these crocodiles. “We are able to maintain temperature- and moisture-control parameters and simulate nest conditions found in the wild during the incubation period.”

The Holden Reptile Conservation Center is home to 180 reptiles representing 70 species, one-fifth of which are considered threatened or endangered in the wild.