NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — The Bronx Zoo has welcomed three scaly friends to its World of Reptiles exhibit: a trio of Sunda Gharial, or Southeast Asian freshwater crocodiles.
The three male siblings are five years old, and were hatched at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. The brothers will be raised at the Bronx Zoo in hopes of breeding them, zoo officials said.
The move is part of the Sunda Gharial Species Survival Plan by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the Wildlife Conservation Society announced on Friday.
There are less than 2,400 adults Sunda Gharial in the wild, and the species is already extinct in its original habitats in Malaysia and Thailand, with an uncertain presence in Vietnam.
According to the Wildlife Conservation Society, there are 36 in AZA zoos and aquariums, and another 118 in zoos worldwide.
Sunda Gharial are typically found in flooded forests, swaps and wetlands in Southeast Asia where they live as an apex predator, and they can grow up to 18 feet long.
Threats to their existence include habitat loss, illegal hunting and climate change.
The Bronx Zoo was the first United States zoo to successfully hatch the Sunda Gharial in 1985.