A restaurant in east China's Anhui Province has triggered a heated debate after putting an extremely endangered alligator species on its menu.

 

The Huifu Fine-food Restaurant, in Huangshan City, started serving Chinese alligator meat on Monday with the approval of the State Forestry Administration (SFA).

 

An official with the SFA would only say that Chinese alligators can be used for commercial purposes even though they are listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

 

The alligator meat comes from a breeding center that has apparently become too successful. While experts estimate there are only 150 Chinese alligators in the wild, the center has raised 10,000 of them. It started breeding the reptiles in 1979 with a stock of just 200. More than 1,500 are hatched at the center each year.

 

The manager of the restaurant said he signed an agreement with the Xuancheng Chinese Alligator Breeding and Research Center to provide 200 kilograms of alligator meat a year. A source with the center said they’ve also made belts and shoes from the hides of the alligators.

 

But yet many people question the ethics of eating an endangered species.

 

"The number of Chinese alligators in captivity has surpassed 10,000 but the number is far from enough to allow their slaughter," said Lu Shunqing, an amphibian reptile expert with the Huangshan College based in Anhui Province. Lu said the government's investment in protecting the alligators was not supposed to end with alligators on the dinner table.

 

Eating the meat of endangered animals goes against the concept of protecting them, said Wu Zhaomin, head of the Huangshan City Research Institute of Anhui Culture. Wu said he wouldn’t eat the meat.

 

"It’s unimaginable that the forestry authorities allow people to eat Chinese alligators which are under state protection," said a teacher of the Yucai Secondary School in Huangshan City.

 

The alligators which have existed for 230 million years are known as a "living fossil." An adult Chinese alligator measures about two meters in length with a tail as long as its body. The alligators feed on small animals like mice, frogs and birds.

 

The species are listed as one of the most endangered in the world. Its drastically declining numbers are caused by shrinking of and damage to their habitat.

 

The 150 alligators believed to be living in the wild can be found in pockets in east China's Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces. Each year the number of alligators declines by 4 to 6 percent, said sources with the breeding center.

 

With 1,500 reptiles hatched each year their number has surpassed the mark set for endangered species, said a source with the breeding center surnamed Zhou.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2006)