Discovery of a new crocodile lizard population in Vietnam: Population trends, future prognoses and identification of key habitats for conservation

The crocodile lizard, a globally endangered species with a restricted range in southern China and northern Vietnam, is an increasingly demanded species in the international pet trade. Poaching activities brought the species to the brink of extinction, while ongoing habitat destruction represents an additional peril to the species. Especially the Vietnamese population is extremely small with a preliminary estimation of less than 100 individuals. According to predictions of the species potential distribution, we conducted targeted field surveys to search for further populations in Vietnam in order to update the species' conservation status. We could prove the practical and efficient applicability of this theoretical model by the discovery of a new population from a predicted forest site near the international border between China and Vietnam. Based on monitoring of the Vietnamese population from 2010 to 2015 we further provide an overview about current population trends, which revealed dramatic local declines of more than 50% of effective population sizes and the species' extirpation at a third of all known sites. In addition, we predicted future scenarios of suitable habitats and compared these results with actual forest cover in order to define key habitats for effective conservation measures.