A crocodile measures between 2.5 and three meters in length.

Short-muzzle crocodile which is indigenous to a small area in Sistan-Baluchestan province, has been pushed to the brink of extinction over the past years.
The short-muzzle crocodile, called Gando by locals, is smaller than other crocodile species and has a more delicate skin compared to other types.
The scientific name of the species is crocodylus palustris and belongs to the crocodylidae family.
Talking to Iran Daily about the Iranian short-muzzle crocodile, director general of the Agriculture Jihad Ministry's Office for Livestock Breeding, Ali Izadi, said, "Pishin Lake in Sistan-Baluchestan is the sole habitat of the creature."
He said crocodiles are as long as 4-5 meters, but Gando measures between 2.5 and three meters in length.
"Presently, about 15 to 20 of the species exist in the lake and nowhere else in the world. The responsibility of preserving Gando, which is bordering on extinction, rests with the Department of Environment," he said.
The official explained that reproduction of the mugger is done naturally and without human intervention. "The Agriculture Jihad Ministry has so far refused to issue permits for artificial breeding of the crocodiles due to religious reasons (eating its meat is not allowed in Islam)," he explained.
"What the DoE has been doing is simply preserve the gene pool of the creature. The department and the ministry have not adopted any specific measures to multiply its numbers."
Pointing to financial gains of breeding crocodiles in the world, he said, "The crocodile's meat and skin are valuable in global markets, especially its skin which is used in leather industries."
Most countries have placed strict bans on hunting of crocodiles due to the decline in its number and the large-scale campaigns by associations for supporting wildlife, but it is still continuing in a few spots. The US has even prohibited the sale of crocodile skin.
The family crocodylidae consists of three subfamilies namely alligatorinae, crocodylinae and gavialinae. Crocodiles have 14 different species.
The marsh or swamp crocodile has remained of Mesozoic's species (225-265 million years ago). They have changed a little during the past 65 million years.
This type has a flat snout with 19 teeth on superior maxilla, and 15 on the inferior. On the back of the head and the neck, there are two pairs of corneous bony plates.
The type has short legs with five toes and long toenails at the end of front legs and four layered toes with shorter toenails on the back legs. Its body color is olive to brown and the stomach white to yellow.
It usually hunts at night and feeds on the fish, birds and mammals around the water.

Director general of the Natural History Museum affiliated to the Department of Environment gave news of plans to establish the country's first field museum, ISNA reported.
Mohammad Fazel added that the museum has launched restoration of vertebrate fossils discovered in Maragheh since two years ago.
"Following preliminary studies and choosing the proper site, NHM is conducting the initial excavation phase for the establishment of the field museum," he noted.
"It has been decided that fossils which are scattered around the area and are damaged would be restored at the museum."
Pointing to allocation of 10 billion rials to setting up and equipping the vertebrate paleontology laboratory, Fazel said that the preliminary equipment have already been purchased.
"An area of five hectares in Maragheh fossil site has been purchased for construction of Iran Paleontology Museum and Research Center," he added.
Fazel mentioned that a mobile sampling station and living quarters has been established for experts and researchers six kilometers off the research center.

Mangrove forests grow in tropical and semi-tropical weather conditions.

Mangrove forests of Naiband Gulf, one of the most important natural habitats in Bushehr province, are endangered by oil pollution, an expert said.
Afshin Daneh-Kar told Fars News Agency that samplings conducted in 100 hectares of mangrove forests revealed black soot on tree leaves--an evidence of oil pollution in the vicinity and suspending particles in
the air.
He reiterated that the trees have stopped blooming since two years ago, adding their flowers are destroyed before blossoming due to polluted air.
The expert explained that the situation has disrupted the natural life cycle of the plants.
He referred to the 1991 Persian Gulf War as a main source of regional pollution, recalling that Iraq released 10 million barrels of oil into the Persian Gulf and set fire to 700 oil wells, after leaving Kuwait. This caused extensive damage to mangrove forests in southern Iran.
Daneh-Kar stated that mangrove forests grow in tropical and semi-tropical weather conditions in saline waters. They protect and form coastal terrain, remove dust and absorb carbon dioxide.

The project has determined the density of natural predators of Hubara and their effect on breeding cycle.

Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi have been cooperating on preservation of Hubara since 2001, a report by the Department of Environment on its environmental conventions and international projects said.
The objectives of the project are cooperation in scientific and research activities to study and protect wildlife, especially the Hubara; conducting field studies on the Hubara including radio surveillance; determining the density of natural predators of Hubara and their effect on breeding cycle; determining the population movement of the productive Hubara in Iran; and establishing and equipping the Hubara Research Center in Yazd province.
Enhancing the genetic diversity of productive population of the Hubara Research and Breeding Center located in Taif, Saudi Arabia and training DoE scientists in the Taif Wildlife Research National Center were other goals of the scheme.
The Department of Environment's Bureau of Wildlife and Aquatic Affairs under the deputy head of Natural Environment and Biodiversity is entrusted with this responsibility.
An expert delegation visited Iran from Saudi Arabia's National Commission on Development and Protection of Wildlife accompanied by the authorities of the Taif National Center for Wildlife Research. The group inspected Hubara habitat in Khatam Township, Yazd, in winter 2001.
Following that, a meeting was held with DoE's Natural Environment and Biodiversity Department and the Saudi delegation. An agreement was reached on the implementation of joint activities. In March 2001, the two parties signed an environmental Memorandum of Understanding. The head of DoE and the Commerce Minister of Saudi Arabia initiated a second environmental Memorandum of Understanding in January, 2002.
Some of the activities undertaken as per the MoU include conducting field studies with regard to the density and frequency of the Hubara's productive population in Yazd; determining the number of Hubara eggs in each nest and the density of nests in each hectare; collecting eight Hubara eggs (over two years) in Yazd province and their transport to the Hubara Breeding and Research Center in Taif to utilize them for breeding of Hubara in captivity and rehabilitation of its population in Saudi Arabia.
The report cited gathering another nine Hubara eggs from their habitat in Khatam Township and transferring them by breeding incubators to Saudi and familiarizing Iranian experts with breeding methods as other activities.
According to the first of two MoUs, the duration of these activities is to be three years.

A river near Esparakhoon village in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan province

A ship containing toxic waste sank on Monday after being moored in a Turkish harbor for four years, sparking fears among environmentalists of serious damage
to local marine life.
The Ulla had sat in the port of Iskenderun in southeastern Turkey since 2000 as officials tried to decide what to do about its two-ton cargo, which Turkish media said was waste from the chimneys of thermal powers stations.
Turkish television showed the ship, its bottom rotted away, gradually sinking beneath the waters of the east Mediterranean.
"Unfortunately this was something that was bound to happen," Banu Dokmecibasi of Greenpeace's Mediterranean office told the Anatolian state news agency.
She said officials had ignored a report last year warning of the risk that the ship might sink and spill its contents into the sea.
"The necessary measures were not taken," she said, adding that the authorities must now mount an urgent investigation to contain the effects of the spillage."
Environmentalists fear the carcinogenic cargo could destroy local marine life and also enter the human food chain. Officials were not immediately available for comment.
The Turkish-owned vessel had originally transported the waste from Spain to Algeria. But it was diverted to Turkey after Algeria declined to take the cargo, Anatolian said.

There are 3,000 to 4,000 goats in Washington state, down from an estimated 9,000 in 1960.

The majority of the meadows and rocky outcrops mountain goats inhabit in Washington state are so remote, only hardy backcountry hikers ever see them, AP reported.
Quick-footed and as elusive as ghosts, the white-coated goats scramble unchallenged along sheer granite cliffs 6,000 feet above sea level, roaming with few predators threatening them.
Nevertheless, their numbers have fallen dramatically in the past four decades.
While the state has focused on saving salmon, goshawks and spotted owls, the dwindling mountain goat's plight has gone largely unnoticed.
"On first examination, you'd assume goats ought to be doing fine," David Wallin, a professor of environmental sciences at Western Washington University in Bellingham, The (Everett) Herald said.
With so little research available, no one is really sure how many are left, said Cliff Rice, a state Department of Fish and Wildlife research scientist.
The best guess is that there are 3,000 to 4,000 goats in the state, down from an estimated 9,000 in 1960.
Rice doesn't know how many goats remain in the Darrington area, but said the Snohomish County group makes up one of the state's most struggling populations.
Four years ago, the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe, which views the goat as a sacred part of its cultural heritage, pressed to get wildlife biologists to start looking into what was behind the species' mysterious decline.
Now state biologists are in the second year of a four-year study to map out where the goats go in the summer and in the winter.
The Fish and Wildlife Department is spending $150,000 a year to collar and track goats up and down the Cascades. The Sauk-Suiattle Tribe contributed $250,000 in grant money to help pay for the study.
So far, 40 animals have been outfitted with collars that use Global Positioning System technology, which maps their location every three minutes.
The information will help land managers better regulate hunting, recreation and logging, all of which could be harming the goats, said Phyllis Reed, a biologist with the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.
The hunting of goats is widely thought to be the main reason goat populations have fallen.

Researchers from Australia believe they are close to developing a method to turn environmentally unfriendly disposable nappies into highly absorbent compost.
Researchers at the University of Sydney want to exploit the nappies' super-absorbent sodium polyacrylate molecule to develop a special resilient compost, capable of retaining excess water, The Sydney Morning Herald said.
"Once the compost is fully developed, it will have a range of uses, from a potting mix that holds up to four times the normal water content of common fertilizer--to an additive for soil that enhances its water-retention properties," researcher Bruce Sutton told the newspaper.
"And through this ability to hold more water, we might be looking at improving the nutrient capacity of soil and the soil structure itself."
Sutton said that as a father of three, he understood the convenience of the disposable nappy.
Sodium polyacrylate swells about 800 times when combined with water and researchers have established it is non-toxic, the newspaper said. Disposable nappies have been widely criticized as unfriendly to the environment.
In an alternative scheme, a Melbourne firm announced last week a separate treatment to turn soiled nappies into high-quality wood pulp and plastic products.

Canadian hazardous waste depots are falling woefully short of environmental standards, according to a government-funded study in which consultants found flaming barrels of chemicals and toxic sludge spilling into sewers, theglobeandmail.com reported.
The 59-page report, submitted last December and obtained through an Access to Information request, describes a waste industry that takes many of the necessary precautions, but suffers shortcomings in emergency preparedness, personnel training, record-keeping and environmental precautions.
The report says most companies have no records of emergency drills or training. Of the 105 waste depots surveyed across Canada, only 60 claimed to have a formal method for including environmental concerns in business decisions.
"You think things that happen in China don't happen here? It's not true," said Murali Ganapathy, the project manager at Senes Consultants Limited, who conducted the study for Environment Canada.
The federal department hired Ganapathy's firm to review how toxic materials are handled by transfer stations before they're recycled or dumped in a landfill. These companies process the most dangerous byproducts of modern industry: sludge, slag, solvents, resins, acids, oils, cyanide and countless others.
But Ganapathy said he was most concerned about an issue that wasn't described in his report: the sloppy storage of hazardous materials at smaller waste depots.