My favorite photos that I have been editing from Chitwan are of gharials, a critically-endangered crocodilian with only 200-600 mature individuals left in the wild. Gharials are also called "fishing crocodiles" because they exclusively eat fish (and sometimes turtles), unlike other crocodiles which are much more opportunistic. Gharials are extremely well adapted to their aquatic lifestyle, with webbed feet and a long, narrow snout that enables this animal to move swiftly through the water in order to catch fish. Gharials are threatened by dams, fishing nets in which they often get trapped and environmental pollution. In Chitwan, a lot of work is being done to increase these reptiles' population, including a gharial captive breeding center which releases young hatchlings into the wild.
Chitwan has many threatened and endangered species, some of which I was lucky enough to see while there. Some of my favorites were one-horned rhinos, Asian elephants, great hornbills and Indian soft-shelled turtles. We also saw lots of tiger tracks, but never were able to actually see any. Unfortunately, none of the camera traps picked up pangolins these two weeks – we changed the batteries and left them out for longer to hopefully change that!
