Wetland disappearance in China has affected dozens of animal species, including the Yangtze alligator of Anhui province, which inhabits the Yangtze River Basin west of Shanghai and is in danger of extinction, scientists say. Between the 1950s and 1980s, the population of Anhui exploded; many alligators were considered pests and killed off. Today it is estimated that only 120 are left in the wild. "The loss of habitat is by far the most serious factors in the decline in the wild population of Yangtze alligators," says Joe Abene, a long-time alligator researcher who worked for the Bronx Zoo in New York and is an expert on the Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis).
科学家表示，中国湿地的消失已经影响到了许多动物种类，其中包括栖息在长江流域与上海西边接壤的安徽省内，目前正濒临灭绝的扬子鳄。1950年至1980期间，安徽省人口激增，扬子鳄被认为是威胁人类的有害动物而遭到捕杀。目前野生扬子鳄仅剩120只左右。扬子鳄专家乔•阿贝尼说：“到目前为止，野生扬子鳄数量急剧下降最重要的因素就是栖息地的丧失。”乔•阿贝尼在纽约布朗克斯动物园工作，长期从事短吻鳄的研究。

"Since the Chinese government has given the Yangtze alligators the highest level of protection, their biggest obstacle has been finding a place to live." At the Anhui Research Center of Alligator Reproduction in the city of Xuancheng, researchers have several ponds housing some 10,000 captive bred Chinese alligators, some of which are introduced into the wild. As scientists work on jump-starting the population through breeding programs, the biggest challenge for the Chinese government will be to set aside enough habitat to sustain a large viable population of Yangtze alligators without harming the livelihoods of the farmers that currently share the river basin with them.
“中国政府已经把对扬子鳄列为一级保护动物，现在最大的障碍就是栖息地的问题。”在安徽省宣城鳄鱼繁殖研究中心，研究人员在水池里人工饲养了大约 10000只扬子鳄，其中一些已经引入野外。随着繁育工作的不断推展，摆在政府面前最大的挑战就是为大量有繁殖能力的扬子鳄提供栖息地，维持较大的扬子鳄存活数量，同时不让它们伤害到居住在长江流域的农民的生活。