Seven endangered crocodile hatchlings have been rescued and returned to their natural habitat, thanks to ArcelorMittal Liberia’s Community Relations Supervisor, Maurier K. Hutchinson.
Hutchinson was on her community engagement tour recently in Frank Diggs’ community, near kilometer 91 in Wee Statutory District, when some locals of the area presented her the seven juvenile crocs and asked her to help release them in the wild as part of AML’s policy on wildlife conservation and protection of the environment.
ArcelorMittal Liberia’s policy on Caring for Nature, amongst other things, calls on its employees to work actively to safeguard and improve the environment in every way possible and ensure the preservation of endangered species.
In collaboration with the company’s Environmental Superintendent, Duke Davies, the crock hatchlings were turned over to the Ecolodge Sanctuary off the Roberts International Airport highway for the process of releasing them back to their natural habitat.
According to a report published in July 2009, a representative sample of waterways in Liberia was surveyed for crocodiles, and three African crocodile species were observed. Contrary to previous reports, only Nile crocodiles inhabit the Monrovia mangrove swamps and brackish-water mouths of rivers; there are no slender-snouted or dwarf crocodiles in these habitats. There is a partitioning of habitats among the three species in Liberia: Nile crocodiles in mangrove swamps and river mouths (brackish water); slender-snouted crocodiles in rivers through the rain forest (freshwater); and dwarf crocodiles in small streams through the rain forest (freshwater), some entering the adjacent river. Dwarf crocodiles utilize burrows in the stream banks.