Orinoco Crocodile Crocodylus intermedius
Critically endangered
Colombia; Venezuela, Bolivia
Ancient Orinoco Crocodiles grow large and live in rivers of #Venezuela #Colombia #SouthAmerica. They are critically endangered from #pollution and #palmoil #soy #beef #deforestation. Support them and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
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The Orinoco Crocodile Crocodylus intermedius is distributed in the northern part of South America, occurring in both Colombia and Venezuela (Medem 1983). The Orinoco Crocodile is one of the largest crocodylian species extant in the world (largest individual recorded 669 cm total length; Humboldt 1860 in Medem 1983). This species dwells a variety of habitats including rivers in tropical evergreen forest, piedmont streams in the foothills of the Andes, and seasonal rivers in savannas (Medem 1983).
Females nest in riverbanks between January and February (dry season) with hatchlings emerging around three months later, generally synchronized with the beginning of the wet season (Seijas et al. 2010). Continuing threats are habitat change, habitat fragmentation, and pollution due to riverside development and human occupancy. An inferred reduction in population size of more than 80% over three generations (75 years) due to species over-hunting in the early and mid 1900s meets the criterion A threshold for Critically Endangered.
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Further Information
Balaguera-Reina, S.A., Espinosa-Blanco, A., Antelo, R., Morales-Betancourt, M. & Seijas, A. 2018. Crocodylus intermedius (errata version published in 2020). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T5661A181089024. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-1.RLTS.T5661A181089024.en. Downloaded on 16 February 2021.
Moreno-Arias, R.A., Ardila-Robayo, M.C. Journeying to freedom: the spatial ecology of a reintroduced population of Orinoco crocodiles (Crocodylus intermedius) in Colombia. Anim Biotelemetry 8, 15 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40317-020-00202-2
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