DHAKA — In a breakthrough in saltwater crocodile conservation in the country, Bangladesh has started using a satellite tagging system to monitor the species’ movements, habits, and life span in the Sundarbans mangroves. These mangrove forests are the animal’s only wild habitat in Bangladesh. On March 13, Bangladesh Forest Department, for the first time in Asia, attached satellite tags on two saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) and released them in the mangrove waters of the Sundarbans. A few days later, the same process was repeated on two more individuals. Two Australian crocodilian experts — Ruchira Somaweera, research scientist at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and an adjunct lecturer at Murdoch University, and Paul Beri, principal ranger of Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services — assisted in tagging the crocodiles and trained the forest officials in tagging and monitoring. Bangladesh’s forest department and IUCN Bangladesh are jointly implementing the project with support from the Integrated Management of the Sundarbans Mangroves and the Marine Protected Area (MPA) Swatch of No Ground in Bangladesh (SoNG), initiated by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), on behalf of Germany’s economy and development ministry. One of the four saltwater crocodile with a newly installed satellite transmitter released into the wild. Image by Md Mofizur Rahaman Chowdury. Mihir Kumar Doe, Conservator of Forests (Khulna Circle), said there is a sizeable population of wild saltwater crocodiles in the Sundarbans currently as the forest department has released around 200 saltwater crocodiles to the mangroves since 2016 from its…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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