Kathmandu: They can dig burrows during extreme weather events, run on land, and will eat just about anything. These traits, among others, make mugger crocodiles (Crocodylus palustris) a versatile species capable of adapting to change.
- The decline in fish stocks in Nepal’s Koshi River threatens the mugger crocodile, a species already under pressure from historical poaching and habitat loss.
- A new study shows the crocodiles are increasingly encroaching into community-run fish farms in the buffer zone of the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve in search of food, raising the risk of conflict with humans.
- At the same time, they face competition from gharials, a predominantly pescatarian crocodile that’s being introduced back into the Koshi as part of a government-run conservation program.
- “Making a vulnerable species compete with its critically endangered cousin doesn’t make sense,” says one of the authors of the study.
“As part of the study, we conducted a count of muggers in the reserve and its buffer zone area, where households and communities run private fish ponds supported by the wildlife reserve,” said Divya Bhattrai, the study’s lead author and a researcher at Nepal’s Agriculture and Forestry University. “We also assessed the threats muggers face in their habitat.”
The Koshi Tappu survey was conducted during Nepal’s winter, from mid-September to mid-December 2020, when the muggers come out to bask in the sun and are easier to spot. Bhattarai and her team observed 35 muggers, up from 16 recorded in 2013. “The number may have increased as we surveyed not only the protected area, but also private and community ponds of the adjoining buffer zone,” she said. Of the 35 individuals recorded, 19 were sighted in the buffer zone area next to community and private fish ponds.
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