PARAGUAYAN VETERINARIANS PLACE A TRACKING CHIP UNDER ALLIGATOR'S SKIN, 2001-08-25 (photo)

Paraguayan veterinarians Julian Ortiz (R) and his assistant Terry Cantero (L) use a detector to test a microchip placed under the skin of an alligator for future identification, before putting it on a truck with dozens of others in General Diaz, some 550 kilometers northwest of Asuncion, to be transported to a refuge near the Itaipu Dam some 800 kilometers (497 miles) east of here, August 25, 2001. Hundreds of alligators, known locally as yacares, will be transported to the refuge from their home near the Pilcomayo River after they were left stranded and dying as their lakes began to dry up due to the overuse of the Pilcomayo's water by Paraguay and Argentina, mainly for crop irrigation. Picture taken August 25. RR/HK