The nest was found more than a month ago, however at that time no eggs were found. Since no crocodiles were recorded from this part of Dinang Creek before, noone suspected that there would be hatchlings.
Dinang Creek flows through the sitio Lumalug in barangay Cadsalan, San Mariano. It is a creek of more than 10 km long, though most of the crocodiles confine themselves to the lower stretch of around 3 km. However last October 2010, a supertyphoon raged through the area, causing even the small, almost stagnant, Dinang Creek to become a fast flowing current. As a result, crocodiles seek refuge in deep pools, caves, or simply by going upstream, where the currents are more managable. .
Apparenty the adult crocodiles who went all the way upstream, into a small lake for rice irrigation, liked it there and decided to stay.
Local people say they often see crocodiles, but only since last October. With the new hatchlings this has been confirmed.
In total at least 11 hatchlings were born, of which four were already swimming to far away for the people to catch them.
Seven hatchlings have been brought to the rearing station by Bas Tinhout, a student doing research to Philippine crocodile nests for his Master's thesis in Wildlife and Nature Conservation for Wageningen University. The past few months he has been intensively looking for nests, and this was the final result.
The hatchlings will be part of the head-start program and will be released back to the wild in two years time