Isla Biodiversity Conservation, Inc.

The Crocodile project visited Dalupiri Island on 10-18 September 2006 to continue their crocodile surveys, conduct educational activities for schoolchildren and work with barangay officials in conserving the Philippine Crocodile on the island. The team was composed of ISLA President Carl Oliveros, Mabuwaya Foundation’s Sammy Telan and Jessie Guerrero.

Repeated night-time spotlight searches and day-time track and nest searches along Caucauayan Creek from 11-13 September yielded only one adult crocodile, down from previous counts of 2 (1 adult and 1 juvenile) in August 2005 and 3 (1 adult and 1 juvenile and 1 hatchling) in May 2005. Certain sections of the creek are lined with Pandanus thickets that make it difficult to count crocodiles and so the team is not ruling out the possibility of the decline being due to individuals being missed in the counts. Nevertheless, the survey shows a very small crocodile population on Dalupiri.

The team visited Dalupiri Elementary School on 14 September 2006 as part of their continuing education campaign to help conserve the small Philippine Crocodile population on Dalupiri Island. After listening to a short introduction to the Philippine Crocodile, students in all six grade levels eagerly took out their crayons to color illustrations of Philippine endemic wildlife, including the Philippine Duck, the Philippine Pit Viper and of course, the Philippine Crocodile. The three best works in each grade level received prizes, including an informative illustrated Philippine Crocodile booklet that was produced by Mabuwaya Foundation and a Calayan Natural Treasures 2007 calendar made by ISLA. In addition, each classroom received a poster promoting the protection of crocodile nests and all teachers were given copies of the Phiippine Crocodile booklet.

On 17 September, the team attended the Dalupiri barangay council meeting to discuss results of the croc surveys on Dalupiri and find ways to protect the local population of Philippine Crocodiles. Experiences of crocodile conservation in San Mariano, Isabela were shared by team members from Mabuwaya Foundation. The barangay council was encouranged to formulate a barangay ordinance to address possible threats to the Philippine Crocodile and wetland resources on the island. The Mabuwaya Foundation offered to extend their Rewards Program to Dalupiri, if an ordinance is passed. In this program a reward of P500 will be donated to the barangay fund for every Philippine Crocodile that hatches in the wild based on succeeding monitoring activities. The manager of the hacienda expressed support for the adoption of barangay legislation to protect crocodiles and wetland resources in the privately-owned island.

The team handed copies of the report on the 2005 surveys, the Philippine Crocodile booklet, the Calayan Natural Treasures 2007 calendar and the crocodile nest poster to council members.

The September 2006 trip to Dalupiri was made possible by financial support from Dr. Rafe Brown and Dr. Town Peterson of the University of Kansas and the Mabuwaya Foundation.