Six Chinese alligators that were raised in captivity will be released next month into the wild in east China's Anhui Province, scientists said on Thursday.

 

The scientists will monitor the six alligators with wireless tracking devices for 18 months, said Wang Chaolin, vice director of the Chinese Alligators Breeding Research Center.

 

This will be the third release of alligators. Three were released in 2003 and six in 2006.

 

The three adult Chinese alligators, two females and one male, released into the wild in Xuanzhou prefecture of Xuancheng in 2003, are living well and the females have hatched eggs, Wang said.

 

The alligators will be released in the 1,300-hectare Gaojingmiao Tree Farm where the others were earlier released.

 

An adult Chinese alligator measures about 2 m in length. They are also known as the Yangtze alligator, which have existed for 230 million years. The Chinese alligator is now safe from extinction, according to Wang, but remains listed as one of the most endangered creatures in the world.

 

The release project was approved by the State Forestry Administration in 2000.

 

To protect Chinese alligators, which are under state first-grade protection, from extinction, the Chinese government set up the Chinese Alligators Breeding Research Center in Xuancheng, Anhui Province, in 1979.

 

 

The number of Chinese alligators at the center has risen from about 200 to more than 10,000. The center said it could hatch 1,500 such reptiles a year.

 

According to a research survey in 2005, less than 150 Chinese alligators were believed to be living in the wild, in pockets in east China's Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces.

 

Over the past two years, about 100 baby alligators are believed to have been born in the wild bringing the number in the wild to 250, said sources with the center.

 

To form a stable number of wild Chinese alligators there should be at least 500, Wang said, adding that the release activities by the center will help their numbers rise.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2007)