Critically endangered species once thought extinct makes an unlikely comeback: 'We are ... far from being able to say the species is in a good place'

A generation ago, the Siamese crocodile was thought to be extinct. A 13-year conservation effort has helped the critically endangered species make a comeback.

In Cambodia, the crocodile is akin to China's giant pandas or India's tigers, and the animals are being bred in captivity before being released in the wild, the Associated Press reported. First reintroduced to their natural habitat in 2012, the crocodiles produced 106 eggs in June.

It marked a high and the most promising sign in two decades that the Siamese crocodile is thriving, the outlet reported.

There are about 1,000 of the crocs in the wild, including 400 in Cambodia. They were nearly killed off by habitat destruction, poaching, and crossbreeding. The hunters who captured, bred, and massacred the creatures to sell their skins have helped them bounce back, too.

They are the source of purebred, fertile crocodiles, pulled from a population of 1.5 million mostly hybrids that were bred for leather, per the AP. After the females lay eggs, the eggs are incubated at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre, allowing the crocodiles to develop before they are brought to a national park in the Cardamom Mountains.

Only one in 20 crocodiles born in the wild survives, according to the AP, but if they are bred captively and not released until they reach 1 meter in length, "their chances of survival increase exponentially."

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The conservationists also have to protect the reptiles' habitat since 32% of the country's tree cover was lost from 2001 to 2023, according to Global Forest Watch.

"Protecting habitat is the most important part of this whole project," Pablo Sinovas of Fauna & Flora told the AP.

That's why the discovery of the eggs was such good news. They produced 60 hatchlings.

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The AP reported that a similar program in India worked wonders, and Sinovas has said that this could be "Cambodia's most successful conservation story."

"We are still far from being able to say the species is in a good place," Sinovas said. "But it is making progress."