Video

The highly endangered Chinese alligator gets a new lease on life inside a research centre in eastern China. But while they haven't been released back into the wild, the centre can hardly deal with their growing number. It is said to have inspired ancient paintings and writings about China's dragon, but the Chinese alligator may just as well be a myth. Outside the walls of this research centre in eastern Anhui province, they are fast disappearing. Development, poaching and pollution along the Yangtze river have taken their toll on the Chinese alligator - one of the world's most endangered species. Today there are less than 200 living in the wild. And now the Chinese alligator has a new set of problems - the centre is bursting at the seams, and its programme to release a portion back into the wild is running at low steam. "We have very limited space here at our centre. Under the current circumstances as you can see the water is dirty, but it isn't because our workers are lazy. Actually it is the natural result of the population density. So, this means we can only raise so many alligators - we can't raise any more than this. According to the laws of nature, a denser population than this can only lead to them dying out," said assistant researcher Zhang Xuesong (pron: djahng hsweh sohng) at the Chinese Alligator Breeding Research Centre. It has been decades since the Chinese alligator - also known as the Yangtze alligator - swam the waters of the Yangtze. Shy of humans ...