Sunday Stamps 085: The World's Largest Crocodile

These are the stamps that came with the postcards I recently received:

Philippine definitive stamps issued in 2011 featuring the country's marine biodiversity (left) and wildlife (right). Please click the photo for a better view of the stamps.

The fish featured in this P1 (one peso) value stamp is the Picasso Trigger, a very popular aquarium fish easily recognised through it's colourful body markings. It can also be noted that these stamps have bar codes on them. 

The other stamp features one the four se-tenant stamps of WWF featuring the crocodiles that are endemic to the Philippines.

  

...Its scientific name is Crocodylus Mindorensis, after Mindoro, where the type of specimen was caught. It is a freshwater crocodile. It can grow up to three meters. Females construct a nest of grass, twigs and sand close to water and lay up to thirty eggs. After two to three months, the eggs hatch. Juvenile crocodiles eat shrimps, insects and snails. Adults prey on fish, birds, rats and snakes and occasionally on larger animals such as wild pigs and deer. 

 The Philippine crocodile is strictly protected under Philippine law. The Wildlife Act prohibits the killing, selling or keeping of the species. The Philippine government initiates a captive breeding program for the species. The University of Southern Mindanao has a crocodile conservation project in Ligawasan Marsh. The Mabuwaya Foundation and Isabela State University implement a project to preserve the Philippine crocodile in the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park by educating people, protecting fresh water habitat and reintroducing the species in the wild... - Source 

WWF works in the Philippines together with different stakeholders to protect and conserve, not only of the Philippine crocodiles, but of nature and environment as a whole.

In a related news, a giant crocodile was captured last year in a creek in a remote farming town in Agusan del Sur (Mindanao island) and was declared, by no less than the Guiness Book of World Records, as the largest saltwater crocodile in captivity. The crocodile was named Lolong, after a government environmental officer who died from a heart attack after traveling to Bunawan in Agusan del Sur province to help capture the beast. Unfortunately, Lolong died in February this year.