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Gharial

Gavialis gangeticus

Photo by Benno Ibold
Published on Project Noah
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1.06577, 110.687

Field Notes

Description:

The gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is a crocodilian of the family Gavialidae that is native to the Indian subcontinent and also called gavial and fish-eating crocodile. As the species has undergone both chronic long term and a rapid short-term declines it is listed as a Critically Endangered by IUCN.
The gharial is one of three crocodilians native to India (the other two are the Mugger crocodile and the Saltwater crocodile). It is one of the longest of all living crocodilians.

Habitat:

Gharials once thrived in all the major river systems of the Indian subcontinent, spanning the rivers of its northern part from the Indus River in Pakistan across the Gangetic floodplain to the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar. Today, they are extinct in the Indus River, in the Brahmaputra of Bhutan and Bangladesh and in the Irrawaddy River. Their distribution is now limited to only 2% of their former range:

Notes:

The Gharial is non-indigenous to Sarawak, but spread through abandoned and runaway animals.

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Photographed
PublishedSeptember 22, 2013

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