Camera `Traps' Survey Cambodian Wildlife
8/15/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Camera `Traps' Survey Cambodian Wildlife
Source: Associated Press
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 15, 1999
Byline: Chris Fontaine
VIRACHEY NATIONAL PARK, Cambodia (AP) -- Off limits to scientists
during three decades of civil war, Cambodia's jungle is now beginning
to give up its secrets -- or, conservationists fear, lack of them --
to ingenious camera traps placed in recently created national parks.
Eleven traps were set along game trails deep within Virachey National
Park, a sprawling 1,330-square-mile forest in northeastern Cambodia
that was once a link in the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War.
After 35 days ending last month, the traps -- triggered when anything
crossed their infrared beams -- recorded 70 photographs of 14 species
of mammal, including two kinds of leopard, a wild cat, wild dogs,
deer, sun bears, civets and wild pig.
It was the first of 10 planned camera-trap expeditions mounted by the
Cambodian Wildlife Protection Office with guidance from the New York-
based Wildlife Conservation Society and the World Wide Fund for
Nature.
Ecologist Tony Lynam said the diversity of wildlife captured in the
photos suggests that a healthy ecosystem survived Cambodia's civil
war.
But the principal quarry of the study, the endangered tiger, was not
recorded. Neither were elephants or banteng -- a large species of
wild cattle -- suggesting that Asia's trade in rare animals for
traditional medicine is beginning to thrive in Cambodia.
``The area is rich in wildlife, but the very largest, critically
endangered species are not there,'' said Lynam, of the Wildlife
Conservation Society, the survey's leader. ``Clearly there is a
problem with hunting, which is indicated by the absence of these
three species.''
Tigers are on the decline throughout Southeast Asia. As few as 1,000
of the big cats remain in the wild.
The plight of the tiger has made the poster species of Lynam's work.
His focus is to determine where the tiger is thriving and single out
those areas for intensive protection.
``Tigers are large flamboyant animals that attract people's
attention,'' Lynam said. ``They are big. They are colorful. They are
fierce. People are interested in tigers, so they have become a symbol
of wildlife conservation.''
If the survey effort is extremely lucky, it could locate the
legendary kouprey. Once the national animal, the kouprey --
literally, forest cow -- is believed to have been hunted to
extinction in the 1960s. However, the civil war prevented several
rumored sightings from being properly investigated.
An extremely rare mammal -- a subspecies of the Javan rhinoceros --
was found rrecently using camera traps i Vietnam's Cat Tien National
Park, about 60 miles east of Virachey. The five to seven animals in
the herd may be the last of the diminutive rhino.
On previous surveys in Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar and Indonesia,
camera traps also have recorded the presence of humans, mostly
poachers. They and loggers are the biggest scourges of wildlife.
In Cambodia, the story looks much the same. Local hunters are known
to trap tigers and sun bears to sell their body parts for use in
traditional medicines. Forestry rangers have found that some use land
mines left over from Cambodia's wars to kill tigers.
Logging, much of it illegal, is also rampant in Cambodia's dwindling
forests.
Nonetheless, some believe that Cambodia's forests are a little-known
haven for rare wildlife.
A recent study by the U.S.-based Cat Action Treasury, based on
interviewing officials and hunters, estimated there are about 700
adult tigers living in Cambodia. But Lynam and Andy Maxwell of the
World Wide Fund for Nature believe that figure is far too high.
Lynam believes his surveys will produce data that supports more
conservative estimates of 200 tigers, but the first survey in
Virachey National Park wasn't encouraging.
On the brighter side, the first expedition revealed some hints of
Cambodia's wildlife mysteries. A black-shanked duok langur, a rare
species of monkey, was documented as cameras were being placed.
The trip was the final exam for three Cambodians from the
government's Wildlife Protection Office who studied Lynam's survey
techniques in Thailand. They will eventually take over the bulk of
the survey work.
After several surveys are completed, the results will help compose a
tiger action plan to protect the cats and other wildlife. Carrying it
out, though, will take broad and determined support within the
Cambodian government.
Cambodia needs a well-trained and well-paid force of forestry rangers
bestowed with real authority to combat poaching and logging.
``Cambodia is a country that has a protected-area system that is in
its infancy,'' Lynam says. ``The parks are at this point only areas
marked out on a map.''