The bulbous-nosed reptiles were in critical decline until conservationists stepped in
As the sunlight pierces the fog, a fisherman on a boat floating along the Gandak River in Bihar, India, spots a magnificent reptile basking on a sandbar in the middle of the river. Most people would mistake it for a crocodile but its distinctive snout tipped with a bulbous mass and elongated jaw tell him it is a gharial.
Gharials (Gavialis gangeticus) are often mistaken for crocodiles or alligators. They are the only species in the Gavialidae family: river-dwellers that eat only fish and some crustaceans, and which split from all other crocodilians perhaps more than 65m years ago.
Related: ‘I swapped my gun for binoculars’: India’s hunters turn to conservation
Written by Kalpana Sunder
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/19/rising-tide-why-the-crocodile-like-gharial-is-returning-to-indias-rivers-aoe under the title “
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