EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Gharial Breeding Center

Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus), Family Gavialidae
Gharial Conservation Breeding Center
Kasara, Chitwan National Park, Nepal

Explanation:  Gharials in a pen!  This is the Gharial Conservation Breeding Center, located in Kasara, south-central Nepal, along the East Rapti River.  Founded in 1978, this Center has been key to the replenishment of gharial populations in south Asia.  

Gharials are a critically endangered species of crocodile (Order Crocodilia), and nearly became hunted to extinction by the mid-1970s.  Once rather widespread in south Asia, now only tiny populations exist, scattered and fragmented, in parts of southern Nepal, Bhutan, and northern and northeast India.  

But here, the Gharial Conservation Breeding Center has bred and released over 1200 captive-bred gharials back into the wild since 1981.   

The goal of the Gharial Conservation Action Plan for Nepal is to maintain and manage viable populations of the species, by researching its prey base and habitat, reducing human stressors and other factors on populations, and maintaining a breeding stock for continued, systematic reintroductions.  

One study (Khadka et al. 2022) has found that, once released into the wild, gharials vary in how fast they then grow in length and weight.  Some individuals lose weight or grow slowly, and do not achieve a potentially mature size as they grow older.  The concern is that such individuals cannot compete for mates and do not reproduce in a wild population.  More study is needed on this effect, including the reasons for the variations in growth rates in the wild of released individuals.

Breeding and feeding pens of gharials
at the Gharial Conservation Breeding Center
in Chitwan National Park, Nepal.

Long may this unique species thrive!

Information:
     Khadka, B.B., A. Bashyal, and P. Griffith.  2022.  Post-release growth of captive-reared Gharial Gavialis gangeticus (Gmelin, 1789) (Reptilia: Crocodilia: Gavialidae) in Chitwan National Park, Nepal.  Journal of Threatened Taxa 14(5):21002-21009. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6692.14.5.21002-21009.
     Panda, A.K., S. Katdare, S. Gawan, S.P. Sharma, R. Badola, and S.A. Hussain.  2023  Population status and factors influencing the distribution of Critically Endangered gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) in a regulated unprotected river system in India.  Global Ecology and Conservation 46:e02547.