Global News - March 2008

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Invasive fish blamed for rare reptile deaths in India

Fri 14 March 2008 14:00 UK — Asia,Reptiles

Experts have suggested that invasive fish carrying industrial chemicals in their bodies could have caused the recent deaths of around 110 critically endangered reptiles known as gharials in central India.

Since December, scientists have discovered the bodies of over 100 of the crocodile-like animals washed ashore along the banks of the Chambal River, one of the few unpolluted rivers in India.

As a result, they were at a loss to explain why the reptiles were dying.

Now, the National Geographic has reported that scientists have suggested that an unidentified substance might be seeping into the Chambal and affecting the gharials' food supply.

Autopsies on the gharials revealed that they died from gout, caused by chemical-laced lesions on the animals' kidneys.

The researchers also suggested that the growing abundance of a cichlid fish from Africa known as the tilapia could be linked.

They suggested that as the fish moved from polluted rivers into the Chambal, they ingested chemicals in their tissues. When the gharials eat the fish, these harmful substances pass into their systems.

One of the international vets who has been working on the case, Paolo Martelli, explained to the publication: "When cold temperatures came, the uric acid precipitated [separated into a fine suspension of solid particles] and began causing problems.

"So winter coupled with excess food could have made the gharials more susceptible to the toxin."

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