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8 grown Chinese alligators moved to preserve
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EIGHT Chinese alligators were transferred to an alligator protection reserve in Zhejiang Province yesterday because they had grown too big for the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium.
The Chinese alligators had lived at the aquarium for 10 years. They range from 1.6 meters to 2.1 meters in length, and weigh about 30 kilograms each on average.
They are not suited to live in a man-made environment after growing up, and releasing them into a protected, partially natural environment is better for their propagation, the aquarium said.
Ten small Chinese alligators have become new residents of the aquarium. They are about a year old, with an average length of about one meter and a weight of five kilograms.
The Chinese alligator is critically endangered and is regarded as a rare “living fossil.” It is one of the only two alligator species in the world and by far the smallest. The other is the American alligator, which can grow to 4.6 meters and weigh 450 kilograms.
Also called the Yangtze alligator, the Chinese alligator has lived on Earth for 230 million years, experts said. The creature was on the verge of extinction in the 1970s, when no more than 500 of them remained.
It is native only to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Taihu Lake area. They are usually less than 2.1 meters, weighing about 36 kilograms.
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