stewardship programs in India and Nepal<\/a> helping increase gharial populations since the 1970s. Global conservation programs, such as the one at Fort Worth Zoo, have also proven successful in raising gharial numbers.\u00a0<\/p>\nFort Worth Zoo\u2019s conservation efforts<\/p>\n
The Fort Worth Zoo’s\u00a0success in gharial conservation is the result of over 15 years of dedicated efforts, which began in 2010 with the construction of the zoo\u2019s herpetarium, the Museum of Living Art.<\/p>\n
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When building the herpetarium, the zoo wanted to include another big crocodilian species alongside its saltwater crocodiles, said Poole. It decided on the gharial because of a lack of public focus on the species.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Texas has similar temperatures to the gharial\u2019s native Indian and Nepalese environments, allowing them to stay outside here all year. \u201cThey’re out basking every day, even when there’s snow and ice on the beach,\u201d Poole said. \u201cIt’s just a good environmental fit here.\u201d<\/p>\n
To make it an even better fit, the zoo drops the temperature of their habitat during the winter months to mimic changes caused by glacial melts in their natural habitats near the Nepalese mountains.<\/p>\n
The zoo\u2019s habitat also has several features meant to encourage breeding, including temperature-regulated waters and heated nesting areas. The zoo has also modified its husbandry efforts to better its breeding success, such as adjusting incubator temperatures, all with the goal of expanding the species\u2019 population and diversifying its gene pool.<\/p>\n
These modifications are working, as the eight hatchlings this year are more than what the zoo has had in recent years, Poole said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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These hatchlings will stay behind the scenes for now to ensure proper growth and development. Once more mature, Poole said, these gharials will likely be used for breeding programs to further conservation efforts.<\/p>\n
Niamh Ordner is a science reporting fellow at The Dallas Morning News. Her fellowship is supported by the University of Texas at Dallas. The News makes all editorial decisions. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"These are no ordinary eggs. They make noise. They also hold crocodiles.\u00a0 Gharials, a kind of croc with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[244,4258,150609,7809,116,118,117,7227,2220,4919,5251],"class_list":["post-433509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-animals","tag-conservation","tag-crocodile","tag-endangered-species","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-fort-worth-zoo","tag-science","tag-science-and-medicine","tag-zoo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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