Crocs survive in Sahara

2005-04-08 19:15

Madrid - Crocodiles living in the Sahara sounds like fiction, but Spanish scientists are investigating such a group in southern Mauritania.

The reptiles are regarded as the last remains of the abundant crocodile population which roamed the Sahara before it dried up some 9 000 years ago.

The group of a few dozen crocodiles subsists at a pond near the Senegalese border, Madrid's Complutense University veterinary professor Eduardo Costa told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The pond, measuring about 100 square metres, is located 200km from the nearest river, the daily El Mundo reported.

French students first discovered the crocodiles in the late 1990s. The ancestors of the animals are believed to have taken refuge near water when the once green Sahara was turning into a desert.

Spanish scientists found the pond to contain large amounts of micro-organisms which favour the presence of weeds. These nourish fish that the crocodiles feed on.

The delicate ecosystem had remained functional despite its small size for millennia, experts said, describing it as a "unique ecological phenomenon".

Crocs never attack goats

"I was struck by the active life of the crocodiles, the presence of quite a few young ones and the amount of fish they were eating," said Fernando Hiraldo, an investigator at a research station belonging to the Donana National Park in southern Spain.

Costa believes the crocodiles survived because they were located far from human settlements.

Even today, local people believe that killing the crocodiles would cause the pond to dry up. In exchange, the crocodiles never attack goats or other domestic animals, which come to drink from the well.

Costa said the Mauritanian desert was known to house only one other such group of crocodiles several hundred kilometres away.

The last crocodiles of the Sahara could well be doomed, if their presence becomes known and begins to draw tourists, Costa added.

The threat could also come from the local animal herders, Hiraldo said, adding he had seen traces of pesticides and anti-parasite medicines around the pond. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA