Tracking plan for rare India croc (BBC) {gharials}

[eppur_se_muova]

By Sanjaya Jena, Bhubaneshwar

Wildlife officials in India's eastern state of Orissa are to use satellites to track endangered crocodile-like gharials released into the wild.

They say only a few of the 501 gharials set free since 1986 have survived.

By monitoring the reptiles, staff at Nandan Kanan zoo near Bhubaneshwar hope to find out what happens to them.

The gharial, with its distinctive long, narrow snout adapted for eating small fish, is facing extinction in many parts of South Asia.
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It has already disappeared from major rivers such as the Brahmaputra and the Chambal, and is no longer found in Pakistan, Myanmar and Nepal, wildlife activists say.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6251226.stm