In captivity As of 2016, at least 20,000 Chinese alligators are living in captivity due to captive-breeding programs, the first initiated in the 1970s. Captive-born Chinese alligators have been reintroduced into their native range, boosting the wild population. Six specimens were released from captivity in 2007, followed by six more in June 2015. As of June 2016, the largest group of Chinese alligators to have been released in the wild was when 18 specimens were reintroduced to Langxi County, part of the species' native habitat, on May 22, 2016. These releases have proven successful, with individuals adapting well to a life in the wild and breeding. A year after the 2007 release, 16 young alligators were found living in the wild. 60 alligator eggs were observed in 2016, distributed in three nests at a wetland park. Although a typhoon in September the same year flooded and eliminated two of the nests, three hatchlings were found in the same area several days after. China The two largest breeding centers for the Chinese alligator are in, or near, the areas where Chinese alligators are still found in the wild. The Anhui Research Center for Chinese Alligator Reproduction (ARCCAR) is the largest of them, housing roughly 15,000 Chinese alligators as of 2016. The center is from the city of Xuancheng, where it makes use of a series of ponds in a small valley. Founded in 1979, the ARCCAR was stocked with 212 alligators collected from the wild over the first decade after its establishment, and received alligator eggs collected by the area's residents and the ARCCAR's own staff from the nests of wild alligators as well. In 1988, the first eggs by human-bred alligators were laid. The reserve decided to reintroduce some of its alligators in the wild in 2001, which was carried out in 2003 when three alligators were released. The alligator breeding was so successful that the ARCCAR began to use the alligators for local meat consumption and live animals for the European pet market, with the profits from these activities continuing to fund the breeding centers. The other major breeding center for the species is the Changxing Chinese Alligator Nature Reserve (CCANR) or Changxing Nature Reserve and Breeding Center for Chinese Alligators (CNRBRCCA), in Changxing County, Zhejiang, about east of the ARCCAR. Originally known as the Yinjiabian Alligator Conservation Area (尹家边扬子鳄保护区), the breeding center was established in 1982. Unlike the