size: 5036KB - Crocodile Specialist Group

49
Eacb time that one of the villagers located a crocodile nest he went to
adminisrrarive
the
head of tbe village io inform him. tI", i" t ri" t".l"r"L of ,h" ,ru_"
or ro^ person aDd the approximate rocation of the nest and the,. registered the
tranre,.date ard time of find on paper and went with rhat p"rroo il-fiia tl"
rne prece
o".t.
ot paper was placed inside the nest. Tbis rimoved any confusion
regarding the 'rownership,' of the nest as it *u, tt u, u""rii1i to trr"i"ii'p"."on *lo
found it-
This. system was organised according to a traditiotral hierarchar svstem. The
administrarive personnel in charge (ihe head of rh. ,iti";; _-;;".; tbe rirte of
by the tocat adminisrrator
,ll^":Tlj :j i:l:rtany,'
in charge-) hajhis own personal
as,he was.
l:::j:r,.llT: -l:TTe given a cerrain percentage of the numbei of eggs
rouno. t nrs.percentage
.
(equivalent to 3 eggs per nest) was paid to him when
person
ihe
tocatrng the nest was in turn paid by the farmerkolleitor. The head of the
a,major parr of
:1,]iq:"11:r,:"
,th-e
collection system and ii" tocut-p.o-otion
rnereor regardtng the protection of the nest sites.
In the norlh of the.country. the syslem was set up entirely by the locals and worked
._",i" berng ac{ompanied by
Lil]illry:
a relay syslem between the people of the
v||rages or the surroundings lo keep an eye on lhe sile and prevenl anv outstders
rrom comtng In to eat tbe eggs or xebu passing over the nesis,
In the south the same system was attempted except that the results were not as
j1i3lt19l"g. Some people djd not declare rhe neits rhat rhey found so thar they
wouto not have to pay lheir fee lo the head of Fokontany und one nesl was even
stolen and made to look as if it had been depredated.
However. this co-u ld be inlerpreted as a lack of surveillance due to a parallel lack
rD rne number ot nests available to suitably justit continual site
"u*eillun"".
Briefly, in the North a spontaneous organisarion of the people by tbe people was
witnessed wbich proved lo work very werr.
c) Except with those people for whom the crocodile was considered sacred in
r\raoagascar, tbe general attjlude of people towards crocodiles still remarns
''eg-ahve
a
one, such as one can gather from certain naturalists rike perrier de la
,t1
3i1|11.9:t^o].,1j
oeeinlils oj rhe cenrury. r"d."d ;;'ii;'"";;ary or an
rnreresung aJttcie on crocodiles, "... th€- Madagascan crocodile is not giaceful,
som€thing which spoils the rivers of the island. iertainly the Oriti""i."iity .f tf,i,
land, with underhand manners, ferocious and with many victims beinfiaken
year,
per
it urgently demands that rhey be destroyed by p".rt",
de la Bathie could add to this that;r the otl"i fr"ni, "ry;;";;o;;;;i,i
tf,! i"a"n ioter."ting
animal and its eventual disaooearance could be neniioned "r."oaiL with u oo.tufgh,
for.,ft. Malgache
9rl
in general and ttr particular those living in crocodile ""rtuin
areas,
rntested
lhere is, for the most pat, nothing to add to rhose firri .tui"rn""t.
natuElist.
of tf,l,