Orinoco Crocodile
Orinoco Crocodile (Crocodylus intermedius) CAPTIVE female for breeding to release young into the wild.
CITIES 1 ENDANGERED SPECIES and almost extinct in the wild after being hunted for their skins.
Hato Masaguarel working farm and biological station, Guárico Province, VENEZUELA. South America.
Males reach 6m & Females 3.5m. They dig nests both on sandy beaches or in soil. Laying 15-70 eggs. The females stay near the nests and protect the young. Nest are heavily predated upon by Crab eating foxes and Tegue Lizards.
HABITAT: Prefer mouths of primary tributaries of large rivers and seem to much prefer rivers through the Orinoco Savannahs to those through Orinoco forests. Travel large distances during the winter months into areas of lagoons and lakes to avoid fast flowing currents of the main rivers.
DISTIBUTION: Orinoco River of Colombia and Venezuela and Trinidad.
The Llanos are flood plains stretching north of the Orinoco River to the Andean foothills, covering 300,000sq km in Venezuela and another 220,000 sq km in Colombia. This area has poor soil but is rich in its river systems which floods in the wet season leaving shallow marshes which nourish a high concentration of birds and animals.
