Six captive-bred Yangtze alligators were released into the wild in east China's Anhui Province on Tuesday.

 

This is the third release of alligators. Three were released in 2003 and six in 2006, scientists from the Chinese Alligators Breeding Research Center said.

 

All the alligators were released in the 1,300-hectare Gaojingmiao State Forest Farm in Langxi County, a nature reserve for Yangtze alligators.

 

"Scientists will monitor the six alligators with wireless tracking devices for 18 months," said Wang Chaolin, vice director of the Center.

 

"We will receive monitoring data round-the-clock to learn more about their living habits and ensure their safety, but our ultimate success depends on the creatures being able to reproduce." said Wu Xiaobing, who is in charge of the monitoring and research work.

 

The Yangtze alligator, also known as Chinese alligator, live in large numbers more than 230 million years ago. An adult Chinese alligator measures about 2 meters in length. The reptile is nicknamed "living fossil" and is as rare as giant panda.

 

"Yangtze alligators were still reasonably common in the 1980s, but as local people turned forests into farmlands, the alligators disappeared," said 78-year-old Hu Dahua, a resident of Gaojingmiao.

 

A survey in 2005 found about 120 Chinese alligators living in the wild, mostly in the nature reserve in Anhui Province.

 

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

 

Wang said that the center was keen to see a population of at least 500 wild Chinese alligators, adding that the center's release activities will spur population growth.

 

The Chinese government has put the reptile on the top protection list. It set up the Chinese Alligator Breeding Research Center in 1979.

 

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

 

The Chinese alligator is now safe from extinction, according to Wang, but is still listed as one of the most endangered creatures in the world.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2007)