The number of Chinese alligators, animals as rare as giant pandas and enjoying top state protection, has increased, indicating that they have avoided annihilation.

Wang Chaolin, director of the Chinese alligator breeding research center, said here Friday that the center has bred more than 9,000 Chinese alligators.

The center has developed advanced breeding technology and can breed 1,500 to 2,000 Chinese alligators annually. The reptiles are living in a 433-square kilometer natural reserve, the country's only protection zone for Chinese alligators.

The zone can only admit 10,000 alligators, Wang said, adding that it is urgent that the alligators are freed into the wild.

So far, over 80 Chinese alligators have returned to the wild and half of them have survived.

The center has set aside four wild zones as the new homes of the reptiles near the reserve and will conduct a series of research and survey programs on the returned alligators. At the same time, zoological experts will make efforts to improve and propagate awareness to protect the Chinese alligator.

A survey of Chinese alligators 20 years ago showed that there were less than 300 of the rare animals in the wild, mainly distributed in a number of counties in Anhui and Zhejiang provinces.

(China Daily 06/09/2001)