Cuba uses satellite transmitters for monitoring of crocodile species

The installation of satellite transmitters has proved effective in monitoring Cuban crocodiles (Crocodylus rhombifer) recently released in this wetland, the largest in the insular Caribbean, in favor of the reintroduction of the endemic species to its habitat.

Thanks to technology donated by an international project, experts have new tools to obtain data on the mobility of the Crocodylus rhombifer, which is exclusive to the Caribbean island and whose largest populations are found in this southern region of Matanzas province.

Pablo Bouza Rodriguez, director of the Enterprise for the Conservation of the Zapata Swamp (Ecocienzap), told the Cuban News Agency in an exclusive interview that a team of biologists is monitoring the species in real time by means of a cell phone application.

Efforts to reintroduce the species to its natural environment, from animals born in the hatchery located near the Boca Guama tourist complex, date back to 2016, when a first group of a hundred crocodiles was released.

Bouza Rodriguez explained that Canales del Hanabana once housed the largest population of Crocodylus rhombifer in the entire Zapata Swamp, and between 1910 and 1933 more than 90,000 of those reptiles were extracted from the area, which was later heavily exploited for agricultural and tourist purposes.

He said that thanks to the donation, a laboratory was also obtained to study the blood of the saurians, since another of the project's outputs is to introduce wild males to the hatchery to reduce health problems derived from inbreeding.

The Cuban crocodile species is threatened by the loss of genetic integrity due to hybridization with the American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus), and illegal hunting motivated by the demand for its meat and the sale of souvenirs, to which will be added climate change.