The Prague zoo has launched a test programme to save the Indian crocodile-like gharial from the brink of extinction with a million-dollar pavilion for the animals to bask, and hopefully reproduce, in. There are only between 150 and 200 of this species, the Gavialis gangeticus, also known as the gavial, living in the wild along India's rivers today. Another 20 or so are in captivity in India, Japan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and the United States, according to the zoo. "All conservation plans launched in the world have failed until now.