Keys Treasures

Fla. crocodiles on the rebound, will lose endangered species status

By David Fleshler

The American crocodile, once among the most imperiled animals in the United States, has rebounded so robustly that the federal government announced plans Thursday to cease classifying it as endangered.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed upgrading the crocodile's status from endangered to threatened, a change that would recognize the crocodile's improved prospects while leaving its legal protection intact.

Once reduced to a last stronghold in northeastern Florida Bay, the crocodile has reclaimed some of its old territory, extending its range up both coasts of Florida. A crocodile recently showed up in a lake at the University of Miami's campus in Coral Gables. Occasional reports of crocodiles come from Fort Lauderdale and the West Lake section of Hollywood. The number of crocodiles in South Florida rose to as many as 1,000 from a low point in the 1970s of fewer than 300.

"The population as a whole appears to be doing better," said Britta Muiznieks, Upper Keys recovery biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "We no longer believe the species is in imminent danger of extinction."

By the early 1970s, before the crocodile came under federal protection, it was dying out. Condominiums and hotels covered most of its old habitat along the coasts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties. In its last stronghold in northern Florida Bay, people shot crocodiles "for sport" from passing boats, a practice that accounted for about half of human-caused crocodile deaths in the early 1970s, according to research cited by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

By the time the crocodile went on the endangered species list in 1976, the population had declined to between 200 and 300, with just 10 to 20 breeding females.

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David Fleshler can be reached at dfleshler@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4535.

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