Rare Baby Crocodilians Just Hatched at The Fort Worth Zoo

New gharial moms Raani and Snaggle, father Big Boy (the biggest gharial in the U.S.), and the ectotherm keeper team at the Fort Worth Zoo. The zoo is now the first in the nation to breed multiple offspring of the critically endangered gharial, a crocodilian which is native to South Asia.

Gharials—freshwater reptiles with long, thin snouts and a bulbous nose (in males)—are at risk of vanishing. There are just 35 in captivity at North American zoos, and researchers estimate that between two hundred and five hundred adults live in the wild. Conservationists have long tried to breed the critters in captivity, but with little success.

Now the Fort Worth Zoo has successfully hatched four new gharials from two different mothers—named Raani and Snaggle—and a father named Big Boy, quadrupling the number born in the U.S.