South Africa’s Zulu people call the crocodile “the cruel one whose teeth smile while killing.” Now, conservationists are trying to convince the tribal people of South Africa that this fearsome animal is worth preserving. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History.
Dr. Alison Leslie is a physiological ecologist and a principal investigator with the Earthwatch Institute. For the past four years, she’s been studying the Nile crocodile populations of South Africa’s St. Lucia Estuary.
“In Africa the way conservation is going is that if a value is not placed on a species, no one is going to bother to look after it. To explain to tribal people who are being harassed by crocodiles day in, day out, why you should look after this particular species, is a hard thing to do. They don’t rely on it as a food source. Just because they don’t eat crocodile meat.”
And so crocodiles are being killed off, populations are low, and the St. Lucia crocs are currently listed as a threatened species. Dr. Leslie is hoping that by demonstrating that crocodiles hold some long-term economic benefits, the killing might stop.
“We can turn crocodile farming into a sustainable use program. Crocodiles can be taken from the wild like they are in Zimbabwe, for example. They hatch them on farms and they utilize the meat products, they utilize the skin products. And in that way you can actually generate an income for a particular country if you can convince these people that crocodile farming is the way to go. And unless a value is placed on a particular animal, they’re not going to buy that idea. Because feeding themselves and their family is far more important.”
Pulse of the Planet is presented by the American Museum of Natural History. I’m Jim Metzner.