Endangered
Chinese crocodile lizard
Shinisaurus crocodilurus
The Chinese crocodile lizard is a semiaquatic anguimorph lizard found only in cool forests in southeastern China and northeastern Vietnam.
The lizard or snake
Published measurements include mass about 46.6 and length about 138.
Range and habitat
The Vietnamese subspecies is only found on Yên Tử Mountain in Quảng Ninh and Bac Giang provinces of northeastern Vietnam. Chinese crocodile lizard live alongside clear streams within subtropical broadleaf evergreen forests. Their preference to occupy less dense habitat is in-line with their antipredator trajectory towards flight rather than fight.
In China, subpopulations within nature reserves benefit from habitat preservation measures.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
In China, Chinese crocodile lizard is known to feed on both vertebrates and invertebrates. Invertebrates include both terrestrial groups (worms, spiders, katydids, etc.) and aquatic shrimp.
Vertebrate prey includes tadpoles, small fish, and occasionally frogs and lizards. Vertebrates are not known to be part of their diet. Female crocodile lizards are able to breed annually.
In crisis
A 2008 study, based on a 2004 survey, estimated that 950 crocodile lizards were left in China, split into eight isolated subpopulations. The largest subpopulation, with around 350 individuals, represents 36% of the entire population in China. A 1978 survey estimated the presence of 6,000 individuals, while a 1990 survey estimated around 2,500 individuals in the entirety of China.
This points to severe population decline, on the order of 70-90% per subpopulation, in the 1978–2004 period. A 2013 survey estimated that around 60 adults were left in Vietnam.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Chinese crocodile lizard is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Chinese crocodile lizard, Wikidata item Q302215. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
