Critically Endangered
Philippine crocodile
Crocodylus mindorensis
The Philippine crocodile, also known as the Mindoro crocodile, the Philippine freshwater crocodile, the bukarot in Ilocano, and more generally as a buwaya in most Filipino lowland cultures, is endemic to the Philippines.
Appearance
It has a relatively broad snout and thick bony plates on its back (heavy dorsal armor). Philippine crocodiles are golden-brown in color, that darkens as they mature.
This is a fairly small species, reaching breeding maturity at 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) and 15 kg (33 lb) in both sexes.
Range and habitat
Populations still survive in the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park within the Luzon rainforest, San Mariano, Isabela, Dalupiri Island in the Babuyan Islands, Abra in Luzon and the Ligawasan Marsh, Lake Sebu in South Cotabato, Pulangi River in Bukidnon, Paghungawan Marsh in Siargao Island, and possibly in the Agusan Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary in Mindanao. It was historically found in parts of Visayas and until the numbers were drastically cut by, mainly, habitat destruction. The Philippine crocodile, also known as the Mindoro crocodile, the Philippine freshwater crocodile, the bukarot in Ilocano, and more generally as a buwaya in most Filipino lowland cultures, is endemic to the Philippines.
Conservation methods are being taken by the Dutch/Filipino Mabuwaya foundation, the Crocodile Conservation Society and the Zoological Institute of HerpaWorld in Mindoro island.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
It has been listed as critically endangered since 2008 due to exploitation and unsustainable fishing methods, such as dynamite fishing. Philippine crocodile is considered to be the most severely threatened crocodile species in the world, listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. A population estimate of 100 non-hatchling individuals underlines the critical status of the species.
C. Mindorensis was considered locally extinct in part of its former range in northern Luzon until a live specimen was caught in San Mariano, Isabela, in 1999. That individual, nicknamed "Isabela" by its captors, was given to the care of the Crocodile Rehabilitation Observance and Conservation until it was released in August 2007.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Philippine crocodile is Critically 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 Philippine crocodile, Wikidata item Q272402. 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.
