DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Integrating Ecology and Evolution to Infer Hierarchical Processes Structuring Slender-snouted Crocodile Populations in Central Africa

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

This project is integrating field and genetic techniques to improve our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary processes driving population structure and persistence in the crocodiles of Central Africa. Combining information from independent genetic markers with radio telemetry data on crocodile movement and habitat use will allow us to differentiate between the effects of historic landscape features (e.g. river hydrology, mountain ranges) and contemporary, human-driven land cover change on the distribution and current status of slender-snouted crocodiles. In the face of rapid environmental change, research focusing on biodiversity can no longer afford to be narrow in scope. This study transcends this challenge by examining the conservation-relevant ecology and evolution of crocodiles at multiple spatial and temporal scales. This project will contribute significantly to our understanding of the evolution of biodiversity in Central Africa. An increased understanding of the evolution of wild crocodilian populations will both facilitate management efforts and provide a unique realization of the interaction between historic landscape features (which were forming when modern crocodiles appear in the fossil record), relatively recent climatic cycles, and modern anthropogenic threats like overharvesting and habitat loss. Slender-snouted crocodiles are the least known crocodilian in the world and this study will finally enable management programs for it. This study is contributing significantly and immediately to the conservation of wildlife in Central Africa through capacity-building with local Gabonese students and facilitation of the development of new protected areas and management strategies for highly threatened crocodiles in Gabon.