From the News: St. Augustine Alligator Farm becomes first U.S. zoo to breed endangered Indian gharial

St. Augustine Alligator Farm becomes first U.S. zoo to breed endangered Indian gharial

Oh, this news is bigger than the headline suggests.  You see, because while gharials have been hatched out in captivity in their native Nepal and India (where they are used in reintroduction programs), this marks the first ever hatching of this species of highly-endangered crocodilian anywhere outside of their native range countries.

You could think of gharials as being like the pandas of the reptile world.  Like pandas, only a tiny handful of zoos display them.  Like pandas, they are a taxonomic oddity, distinct from their closest relatives in behavior and anatomy.  And like pandas, they are endangered... though gharials are the more endangered of the two.

When I visited St. Augustine for the first time, some of their reptile keepers were describing to me the set-up that they were hoping to use to coax their gharials into breeding.  I'm glad to see that their plans were met with success.  Hopefully, this will be the first of many, and captive-bred gharials from the US can be used to supplement the wild populations of India and Nepal.