This morning’s USA Today has an extended feature on the recovery of wildlife in Cambodia. The story describes how the Wildlife Conservation Society has been working with the Cambodian government to protect native animals.
“It’s quite moving, I guess,” says Ed Pollard, the society’s technical adviser, standing in the dappled light beneath a canopy deep inside the jungle.
“Only 30 years ago this was a hotbed. There were arms coming along this trail around this area and now it’s all overgrown and it seems like this untouched wilderness. In what used to be a cauldron of war, we’ve now got tigers and elephants and bears trotting backward and forward almost unmolested.”
And much more. According to WCS, at least 42 threatened species now thrive within the 1,160 square miles of what is officially the Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area.
A sharp eye can spot a charismatic primate called the black-shanked douc, gorging on treetop leaves in the late afternoon. Once it was thought their main home was Vietnam, but it’s now believed that half the world’s population lives in the once devastated forest. Large herds of gaur, magnificent horned wild cattle, roam the area as do muntjac deer, banteng ox and wild pig, all vital prey for tigers.
Bird life — ibis, vulture, eagle and hornbill — abound. So many Germain’s Peacock-pheasants have been spotted that conservationists have scratched the species from the world endangered list.
The entire article contains more information. There’s also a sidebar that describes photographing tigers.
[USA Today: Rebirth in Camobodia: Wildlife on the Ho Chi Minh Trail rebounds]
