Mystery of crocs' mass die-off: gharials in India

Another example to illustrate the importance of good water quality to ecology. Hey, these gharials don't even stay in the water all the time but they are still exposed to the effects of water pollution and poor water quality. This piece of news also shows that such effects need not be localised or even confined to downstream of a pollution event. (The crocs are actually staying in a clean tributary upstream but because they feed in polluted waters downstream, they become implicated.)

Mystery of crocs' mass die-off: gharials in India

via wildsingapore news by hello@wildsingapore.com (ria) on 12/2/08

BBC News 2 Dec 08; Measuring up to 6m long, with elongated narrow snouts, gharials are one of the world's most distinctive-looking crocodilians. Just 100 years ago, these fish-eating reptiles were prevalent throughout the Indian subcontinent; but by 2007, there were just 200 breeding adults found in only a handful of rivers in India and Nepal. Last winter, this already critically endangered species was dealt another cruel blow. Over the space of just five months, more than 100 of the creatures washed up dead on the banks of India's Chambal river - and nobody knew why. For the past year,...

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