Head-starting and translocation of juvenile Crocodylus acutus in Lago Enriquillo, Dominican Republic

Abstract

Since 1992 the Dominican Republic is carrying out a conservation project in Lago Enriquillo, a hypersaline inland lake, where the country's only Crocodylus_acutus population is surviving. The population had declined from 300-600 adults in the early 1980s to some 200 in 1992, mainly due to illegal killings. The Dominican Wildlife Department (DVS), in charge of animal and plant conservation, developed an action plan to secure the crocodiles' survival and well-being. An inter-institutional executive council was formed to …