Letter From San Mariano
How a northern Philippine town learnt to live with the world’s rarest crocodile
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
Amante Yog-yog Jr holds up a young Philippine crocodile that the Mabuwaya Foundation is protecting at San Mariano, Isabela, the Philippines, on July 28.
ST PHOTO: MARA CEPEDA
SAN MARIANO, ISABELA – The instruction, whispered on the bank of Dunoy Lake at seven in the evening, was that I should keep very still.
Conservationist Amante Yog-yog Jr swept his torch across the black water. Two points of pale yellow caught the beam and held it: the eye-shine of an adult Philippine crocodile, the rarest crocodilian on Earth. Then a second pair, and a third. Two more sat low in the vegetation ringing the lake, and in a shallower arm, two hatchlings moved among the fish.