796 G. A. González‐Desales et al.
area. Management strategies are now required for this crocodile population, as employed in 1998 and 1999 when eggs were recovered from nesting areas within the estuary, with 123 offspring reared from 126 incubated eggs and then released in the Reserve (Sigler et al., 2000). In other regions of Mexico, habitat protection, nest and clutch care, and long-term monitoring have helped the recovery of C. acutus populations (García et al., 2010). Since 2011, following the incidents with crocodiles,
people living along El Hueyate estuary no longer engage in fish harpooning for fear of being attacked; they also des- troy crocodile eggs (Sigler & Martínez-Ibarra, 1998; Sigler et al., 2000; González-Desales et al., 2016a) and no longer swim or bathe in the estuary. Negative human–crocodilian interactions affect both parties (Table 2;Pooley, 2015). People may suffer fatal incidents, temporary or permanent physical and/or psychological damages, economic expenses and loss of domestic animals. The decline of a crocodile population can affect the local economy directly, and negatively, as a result of an increase in species of mammals, birds and arthropods considered problematic for agriculture (Cott, 1961; Fittkau, 1973), and short-term ecological imbalance (Nifong, 2018). It is therefore important to collect data systematically, to
understand the dynamics of crocodile populations and to document their interactions with people and, subsequently, to recommend actions that facilitate coexistence (Pooley, 2015). Ecotourism and sustainable harvest of crocodilian populations are potential management strategies (Fukuda et al., 2014). To conserve crocodiles, it is vital to involve all stakeholders, including government agencies, non-govern- mental organizations, business and tourism sectors, the media, and the public, both rural and urban. The majority (78.5%) of incidents occurred during Feb-
ruary–September, the nesting season of C. acutus, which is similar to Crocodylus palustris in India, where 71.8%of incidents were reported during the breeding season (Vyas &Stevenson, 2017). The main local economic activity is fish- ing within the estuary, close to nesting sites (Hernández- Hurtado et al., 2006; Das & Jana, 2017). Although the inhabitants in the study area suggested that the increase of crocodiles in the estuary is the main cause of negative interactions, our findings suggest otherwise: negative in- teractions also occurred when crocodile abundance was low, such as in 2014 (Fig. 3). Another important aspect to consider is a crocodile’s length (Fukuda et al., 2015): the average size of the crocodiles responsible for negative interactions in Mexico was 2.8 m (range 0.5–4.0 m), and in 36 cases the crocodiles were reported to be .2 min length (CrocBITE, 2018). The crocodiles involved in the negative interactions in El Hueyate estuary measured 1.5– 3.7 m in length (Table 2), and the dates of the incidents recorded corresponded to the months of courtship, nesting or care of neonates. In other species of crocodilians it has
been documented that anthropogenic activities such as swim- ming, fishing,washing,walking near sources ofwater, sailing, catching crocodilians, falling into the water, bathing cattle, collecting water or crossing a body of water, are the main circumstances in which negative interactions occur between people and crocodiles (Caldicott et al., 2005;Langley, 2005; Jayson et al., 2006; Dunham et al., 2010;Brien et al., 2017). Our findings indicate a relationship of negative human– crocodilian interactions with anthropogenic activities and the crocodile reproductive season (nesting and care of hatchlings), and potentially to some socio-economic char- acteristics of the municipalities where negative incidents occur. This is also the pattern on the Mexican Pacific coast. Abundance of crocodilians does not appear to determine the frequency of negative interactions, but the probability of negative interactions may increase in locations with more crocodile sightings. This should be considered in the safeguarding of tourists and the local population: monitoring of wild populations of C. acutus would help to establish whether there are more negative incidents at sites with greater numbers of crocodiles. Consideration of the socio-economic characterization of municipalities, and locating nesting zones, are the first steps required to identify risk sites and to implement prevention strategies: for example, signage at risk sites such as nesting areas and training of response groups for incidents with crocodiles. Negative interactions between people and crocodiles are
increasing in Mexico (García-Grajales & Buenrostro-Silva, 2019), and the study of this phenomenon is necessary to sup- port public policies, possibly including the translocation or removal of troublesome individual crocodiles. Conservation strategies need to consider the ecological, socio-economic and cultural aspects of these interactions, to avoid the illegal killing of crocodiles (Carter et al., 2017). Public education about crocodiles needs to be improved, to inform people about high risk situations and how to avoid them, but it is also imperative to convey why crocodiles need to be con- served (Pooley, 2015; Cureg et al., 2016;Sideleau et al., 2017). Conveying this message to the diverse range of stakeholders could include various strategies such as the use of brochures, pamphlets, signage,media coverage, posters, public presenta- tions and tourist guides (Amarasinghe et al., 2015). Finally, we make the following recommendations: (1) monitoring recreational activities near the sites and during the nesting season (depending on the site, February– September) by tourism service providers and institutions responsible for crocodile monitoring and administration of natural areas, (2) dissemination of information on the possible risk of incidents, (3) protection of eggs in incuba- tion pens, and (4) encouraging strategies to meet the social and economic needs of the local human population. We have implemented some of these strategies in El Hueyate estuary, and so far there have not been any reports of
Oryx, 2021, 55(5), 791–799 © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605319000668
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