Tomistoma / false gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii).
Image: TimVickers, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
At a glance
- IUCN category
- EN · Endangered
- Animal group
- Reptiles & Amphibians
- Population trend
- Decreasing
- FaunaHub record reviewed
- Checked against IUCN
- Matches source — IUCN's 2023 global assessment of Tomistoma schlegelii says EndangeredChecked 2026-10-09 against IUCN's Red List export published 2026-07-28 · assessment
Conservation overview
The tomistoma, or false gharial, is a slender-snouted crocodilian of Southeast Asian swamps. It is assessed as Vulnerable.
Its very narrow snout suits catching fish, like the true gharial it resembles.
Range & habitat
Freshwater swamps and rivers of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo.
Major threats
Threats below are drawn from the authoritative sources listed on this page. For the current, complete assessment, see the IUCN Red List.
- Habitat loss including peat-swamp drainage
- Fishing-net entanglement
- Egg collection
Why it matters
A specialised freshwater crocodilian of vanishing peat swamps, the tomistoma is a flagship for Southeast Asia's threatened wetland forests.
Gallery
Tomistoma (Tomistoma schlegelii); this individual is in a zoo.
Image: Crisco 1492, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sources
Sources for Tomistoma
- IUCN Red List — look up Tomistoma (authoritative status)
- reptile-database.reptarium.cz