The eggs are incubated for about 90 days in very specific conditions, buried in sand at a depth of 33 centimeters, at a temperature of between 30 and 34 degrees Celsius (86-93 degrees Fahrenheit) and humidity of 85-90 percent.The first-person narrator, who remains anonymous, commences the novel with her graduation from a Taiwanese university in 1991.

The zoo's captive breeding pair produces about 40 eggs at a time. On Sunday, Pantin was on hand for the release of 160 hatchlings-small and green-skinned with black spots and light eyes-into the Capanaparo River. It is one of several croc breeding centers in the country. Pantin, 56, manages the Leslie Pantin breeding zoo-named after his father who founded it-with his wife Tuenade Hernandez in the northern state of Aragua. to raise the animals and then release them, but after that it no longer depends on us, there has to be protection of these animals, surveillance, control, there has to be environmental education,' conservationist Federico Pantin told AFP. The Orinoco Crocodile is critically endangered, and conservationists nurture them for 90 days after they hatch before releasing them into the wild.īut their numbers have not significantly increased. And their habitat is ever shrinking and defiled by pollution.Įfforts that started in 1990 to breed new crocs in captivity have seen some 10,000 freed back into the Venezuelan wild.

Today, such trade is prohibited but the threat persists: the crocs are killed for their eggs and meat, and sometimes out of fear. More than 2.5 million Orinoco Crocodile skins were exported from Venezuela from 1931 to 1934, according to official Venezuelan figures. It can grow to more than six meters (19.7 feet) in length and over 400 kilograms (882 pounds), making it one of the largest crocodiles in the world.Īccording to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, it is critically endangered, having suffered an 80-percent population reduction in just three generations in the early and mid-1900s. Known to scientists as Crocodylus intermedius, the enormous reptile is native to the Orinoco basin that Venezuela shares with Colombia. Millions were slaughtered in the 20th century, mainly for their skins, and today, only about 100 adult females are left in Venezuela, according to the country's Fudeci natural sciences foundation.

Notes of a crocodile