Crocodiles: Caught in the jaws of extinction

MANILA, Philippines - “They look like dinosaurs!” I shouted to my brother as we gaped for the first time at crocodiles. This was Manila Zoo in the 1990s and to pint-sized kids – 15-foot crocodiles seemed ancient, gigantic and utterly invincible.

Two decades later I found myself beside the world’s largest captive crocodile, venerable Lolong, in Bunawan, Agusan del Sur.

As a team from the DOST measured him, I realized that crocodiles actually lived way before many of the dinosaurs – evolving in the Mesozoic epoch to stalk juvenile Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus Rex and others foolish enough to get waylaid by the water’s edge.

Hailing from a family which actually outlived T-Rex, last Sunday’s demise of Lolong comes as a shock to both crocodile enthusiasts and conservationists.

Says WWF-Philippines vice-chair and CEO Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan, “Lolong projected the unimaginable magnificence of estuarine crocodiles.

It is ironic that the largest-known representative of this family that survived the mass extinction of dinosaurs has died after barely two years in the ‘care’ of humans. We must learn about how to be much less presumptuous about what we know, and about what we do not.”    

Crocodiles of old

Long ago, crocodiles were common in the Philippines. In Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, Ibarra saved Elias from a rogue crocodile by the banks of the Pasig River. In 1823, a 27-foot crocodile was shot and killed in Laguna de Bay. Rizal and many of his era wrote of scaled beasts strong and vicious enough to overturn boats with their tails.

Today most of the giants are gone, wild crocodiles only surviving in scattered groups throughout the archipelago.

There are two types of crocodiles in the Philippines – and no alligators (crocodiles have V-shaped snouts while alligators sport U-shaped ones).

The Philippine or Freshwater Crocodile (Crocodylus mindorensis), critically-endangered and found only in Mindanao and Isabela, has sharp grooves down its nape.

The larger estuarine or saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) has a smooth neck. Lolong is a Saltwater crocodile, so-named because of his ability to excrete salt through his tongue.

“They are the largest crocodiles on Earth,” explained former DENR Secretary Dr. Angel Alcala while inspecting Lolong in Agusan. “Some live up to a century and can swim from island to island. Just imagine running into one underwater!” 

While not on the brink of extinction globally, Saltwater crocodiles are critically-endangered in the Philippines.

Lolong’s  Sept. 3, 2011 capture has been retold time and again. For three weeks, experts deployed traps up and down Nueva Era, near Agusan Marsh.

Four steel cable traps snapped. The fifth and last one snagged something big. The battle of hoists and grunts began, and when trappers shouted “Nakuha na!” (“We got him!”), about 80 people surged forth to haul the giant onto a makeshift cart.

Christened Lolong after one of the crocodile hunters who died of a heart attack before the capture, the 20.2-foot male crocodile was interred in the Bunawan Eco-Park and Crocodile Rescue Center in Agusan del Sur, a facility which planned to highlight the indigenous fauna of Agusan Marsh and perhaps breed crocodiles for release.

His pen – designed to hold nuisance animals – was fairly sufficient, but nowhere near the 15,000 hectares of his home marsh. 

Caught in the jaws of extinction

The crocodiles of Rizal’s time have since passed onto legend.

Today, both freshwater and saltwater crocodiles are threatened with extirpation. Says Dr. Glenn Rebong of the Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center, “Wild numbers have taken a nosedive because of hunting, habitat pressure and human conflict.”

The problem of course, is that humans are encroaching into crocodile habitats. We walked over to Magsagangsang creek in Agusan del Sur to look for wild crocodiles and interview locals.

Similar to riverside communities in Laos and Cambodia, many houses near the marsh are built on stilts – some as high as 20 feet up.  

We didn’t see any crocodiles that day, but talked with locals who saw an alleged 25-footer in 2011. To protect the populace, who fish for carp and cichlids up and down narrow channels aboard flimsy, dugout canoes, the local government saw it fit to capture and ‘rescue’ crocodiles large enough to be deadly to people.

In the end, humans won out – never fully realizing how crocodiles actually enrich aquatic ecosystems.

“Each crocodile recycles nutrients. Defecation fertilizes the ecosystem. If people want to take crocodiles out, then that effectively ends ecosystem processes. Where there are crocodiles, there will always be fish,” explains Dr. Alcala.

Having survived numerous mass extinctions, Lolong and his kin now face their greatest challenge – how to thrive in a world between humans and their own ancient ways of living.

We can only hope that so long as responsible rescue and conservation efforts are emplaced, crocodiles can display the kind of resilience that has made them outlive the dinosaurs.