#Annamite muntjac

[inatungulates]

Annamite muntjac Muntiacus truongsonensis

Observed by roylesafaris, CC BY-NC

[wachinyeya]

New National Park Widens Protection of Legendary ‘Asian Unicorn’ Mountain Home https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/new-national-park-widens-protection-of-legendary-asian-unicorn-mountain-home/

A Saola (or Vu quang ox, known as the Asian Unicorn) Pseudoryx nghetinhensis ©David HULSE / WWF

The government of Laos DPR recently turned a vast area of hills and tropical forests over to conservation with the establishment of Xesap National Park (NP).

Aided by Western endowments and nonprofits, the establishment expands an already existing protected area to a total of 202,300 hectares, including the 49,000-hectare Pale area, which is thought to be a significant and relatively undisturbed habitat for key species.

The Saola was only identified in 1992 by a local ecologist. The first few that made it into captivity have died shortly thereafter, and the species is listed as Critically-Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

Roaming in the shadow of the so-called unicorn are fascinating animals like the elusive Roosevelt’s muntjac, vibrant red-shanked douc, the rare Annamite striped rabbit, and the stunning crested argus. New species are discovered in the Annamites at an incredibly high rate, even many large mammal species described for the first time by science in the last century.

Spanning the provinces of Salavan and Sekong, with nearly 35 villages located in and around the park, Xesap NP is now one of seven NPs in Laos DPR. With its forested valleys, limestone karst hills, vertiginous mountains, and extremely rich biodiversity and endemism, Xesap’s redesignation as an NP from a National Protected Area is a well-deserved recognition of its ecological importance in the Greater Mekong, the statement read.

[writtenfoxscreams]

I have never been so jealous, yet so proud of any person/people in my life.

[patreontoken]

Saola

Website

Facts

In the two decades after its discovery, the fascinating saola, sometimes known as the Asian unicorn, has remained a mystery. In captivity, there are none, and this rarely seen species is already critically endangered. Only four times has saola been categorically documented in the wild by scientists.

STATUS: Critically Endangered

POPULATION: Unknown

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Pseudoryx nghetinhensis

HEIGHT: Average 33 inches at the shoulder

WEIGHT: 176-220 lbs

HABITATS: Evergreen forests with little or no dry seaso

The saola was discovered in north-central Vietnam in May 1992 during a joint survey conducted by the Ministry of Forestry of Vietnam and the World Wildlife Fund. When the team discovered a skull in a hunter's cabin with unusually large, straight horns, they recognized it was something special. The discovery was one of the most dramatic zoological discoveries of the twentieth century, as it was the first huge mammal discovered in more than 50 years.

Two parallel horns with pointed points, which can reach 20 inches in length and are seen on both males and females, distinguish Saola (pronounced sow-la). They are a cousin of cattle with antelope-like horns, and their name means "spindle horns" in Vietnamese. Saola have eye-catching white markings on their faces and big maxillary glands on their muzzles, which they may use to indicate territory or attract mates. They can only be found in Vietnam and Laos' Annamite Mountains.

Why They Matter

The exact number of people who remain is uncertain. Because of its rarity, uniqueness, and vulnerability, it is one of the region's top conservation priorities. The present population is estimated to be a few hundred at most, and probably as few as a few dozen at the most.

The saola is a significant emblem for biodiversity in Laos and Vietnam, with its exceptionally tall horns and white markings on the face.

Habitat Loss

Saola are being forced into smaller spaces as forests are cut down to make way for agriculture, crops, and infrastructure. The increased pressure from the region's quick and large-scale infrastructure is fragmenting saola habitat. Conservationists are concerned that this may provide hunters easy access to the saola's once-untouched habitat, potentially reducing genetic variety.

Hunting

Snares set in the forest for wild boar, sambar, or muntjac deer frequently catch Saola. Snares were set up by local villagers for subsistence and crop protection. The demand for traditional medicine in China, as well as restaurant and food markets in Vietnam and Laos, has led to a tremendous surge in lowland people hunting to supply the illicit wildlife trade.

Website

[ruggerorespigo]

Wildlife camera trap surveys provide new insights into the occurrence of two threatened Annamite endemics in Viet Nam and Laos

Using wildlife cameras, scientists have provided new insights through a large-scale assessment of the occurrence and distribution of the Annamite striped rabbit and two Annamite dark muntjacs in six sites in Viet Nam and Laos. The team identified factors that influence the occurrence of these threatened endemics, and provided prediction maps for these sites. Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220222135259.htm

[bangkokjacknews]

'Barbaric' snares are wiping out Southeast Asia's wild animals

Across Southeast #Asia, wild animals are being #hunted out of existence to feed growing demand for bushmeat, according to conservationists. Thomas Gray, science director with conservation group Wildlife Alliance, which operates in Cambodia, says that snares -- simple traps made of wire and rope -- have become the single biggest threat to ground-dwelling animals in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos over the last decade.

Snares collected by community rangers in Nakai-Nam Theun -- a protected area in the Annamite Mountains in Laos. The scale of the problem is "phenomenal" says Gray. Between 2010 and 2015, more than 200,000 snares were removed by patrol teams from just five protected areas in the region. But despite these efforts, says Gray, law enforcement patrols can't keep pace with poachers and stop the slaughter. Typically made from motorbike and bicycle brake cables, snares are cheap and simple to construct. Traditionally, hunters made snares from rattan and other natural forest products which were "relatively weak and decomposed relatively quickly," says Gray. Wire snares require much less skill to make and can last for years.

The hunters' targets are animals they can sell as food, including wild pigs, muntjac deer, civets and porcupines. But the tragic thing about snares, says Gray, is that "they take out everything." Animals caught in these "barbaric" devices face a lingering death, he says. A few manage to escape, but are likely to die from their injuries -- sometimes because they have gnawed off a limb to free themselves. Trapped animals without market value are simply left to rot in the forest. Southeast Asia's forests once teemed with myriad species, including sun bears, striped rabbits, marbled cats, hog badgers and monkeys. But the snaring epidemic is leading to what conservationists call "empty forest syndrome." "In some areas there are no mammals larger than a rodent left," says Gray. A perfect storm In Cambodia, setting snares is illegal in protected areas -- where most of the wildlife is found. Selling the meat is also illegal, says Gray. But that has not deterred poachers. Demand for wild meat is fueled in part by rising incomes in the region, says Regine Weckauf, illegal wildlife trade advisor with Fauna & Flora International. Research conducted by the non-profit in Cambodia identified two main types of consumer.

Found with its arm caught in a snare by researchers from the Laos conservation group Anoulak, this stump-tailed macaque was released back into the wild. "In rural areas, people generally consume bushmeat because they like the taste," says Weckauf. "Often, they don't realize it's been sold illegally." For urban consumers, in the capital Phnom Penh and other big cities, eating wild meat is an "elite practice" she says -- and it's almost exclusively men who do it. Procuring wild meat when entertaining associates demonstrates power and status, says Weckauf. "It shows that the man can afford the meat and that he's well connected and knows how to source it." In cities, many consumers know that wild meat is illegal, so providing it also sends the message, "I am untouchable," she says. Similar patterns of consumption have been observed in Vietnam.

A sambar deer caught in a snare in Belum Telemgor forest in northern Malaysia, near the Thai border. According to Gray, the perception of bushmeat as a prestige food has combined with changes to the landscape to create a "perfect storm" for Southeast Asia's wildlife. "Fifty years ago, people would have set snares within walking distance of their village, for their own consumption," he says, "but the rest of the forest wasn't snared." Since then, he says, rampant deforestation, expanding road networks and the ubiquity of motorbikes have led to forest interiors becoming accessible like never before and subsistence hunting has developed into commercial poaching. Cambodia's wildlife is also squeezed because the country has one of the biggest deforestation problems in the world. It was once cloaked in lush forests but huge expanses have been cleared by loggers and to make way for roads, fields and vast rubber plantations. Analysis by scientists from the University of Maryland and Global Forest Watch has revealed that although other countries are losing more forest in terms of area, Cambodia's forests are being cleared especially rapidly. The country lost four times as much forest in 2014 as it did in 2001. However, although logging and deforestation destroy the animals' habitat, Gray says that by the time the trees are cut down, most of the animals have already been killed by hunters.

Snares, home-made guns and chainsaws confiscated by Wildlife Alliance's rangers in Cambodia's Cardamom rainforest. The toll of snaring on many species across the region has been devastating. The saola, a mysterious antelope-like animal that was only discovered by scientists in 1992, is on the brink of extinction -- it has fallen victim to snares despite not being a target species, says Gray. The dhole -- a tawny-colored wild dog -- is also highly endangered. "There are probably fewer dholes left than tigers," says Gray, 'but they don't get the same level of attention." Dholes are especially susceptible to being caught in snares, he says, because they roam over large distances in search of pigs and deer which are, themselves, becoming increasingly rare because of snaring. Gray says dholes are thought to be extinct in Vietnam and are likely to become extinct in Laos. "There is still a decent population in Cambodia, but if we don't solve the snaring crisis, they will go too."

This dhole pup was born in San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park. Its counterparts in the wild are being killed by snares. Changing behavior Wildlife Alliance operates a team of 110 rangers who work "24/7" removing snares from the Cardamom rainforest in western Cambodia , says Gray. In 2018 alone, the team, working in partnership with the Cambodian Ministry of Environment, removed 20,000 snares and destroyed 779 illegal forest camps -- structures built inside protected areas where poachers sleep and store equipment and animal carcasses. Rescued creatures are cared for at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre, which houses more than 1,400 animals -- some of which are released in safe areas and some of which stay there for the rest of their lives, depending on the severity of their injuries. This work is vital, but it's not nearly enough, says Gray.  

A Wildlife Alliance ranger rescues a common palm civet in Cambodia's Cardamom Rainforest. Civets are often found dead in snares, but this one survived the ordeal. Gray believes legislative reform is needed. Currently, snaring is almost a "risk-free crime," he says, because although it is illegal in protected areas, "the chances of catching someone red-handed in the act of setting a snare are close to zero." In 2001, the Cambodian government created the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team in an effort to crack down on the trade. The team says it has saved more than 70,000 live animals, seized 54 tons of animal body parts and arrested 3,400 traffickers. Heng Kimchhay, who heads the team, says the Cambodian government has created more than 27 thousand square miles of protected areas (around 40% of Cambodia's total land mass) and assigned additional personnel to combat poaching on protected land. But, he says, the illegal wildlife trade has grown in size and sophistication and his team needs more staff, more training and more equipment.

Chhouk, a male elephant, was found as a baby wandering alone in the forest in northeastern Cambodia. He had lost a foot to a poacher's snare and was close to death. Wildlife Alliance took him to Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre where he was given a prosthetic foot and has been cared for ever since. Gray would like to see the "intent to snare" treated as a serious crime. "If someone is walking in the forest with snare materials -- such as 50 motorbike brake cables -- they are clearly planning to set snares," he says. But while poaching remains lucrative, there is only so much that legislation and enforcement can achieve. The key to solving the snaring problem, some believe, is behavior change. "We need to understand why people consume bushmeat and the best ways to persuade them to stop," says Weckauf. Fauna & Flora International plans to work with marketing firms and communication specialists to find solutions geared to human psychology, she says. "We want to use the kind of techniques that have successfully persuaded people to wear seat belts, to use mosquito nets and to stop wearing fur," she says. These efforts are essential, says Gray, because otherwise "we face the loss of species, the loss of heritage, and the loss of tens of millions of years of evolution that have created Southeast Asia's unique wildlife." Read the full article

[rjzimmerman]

Large-antlered muntjac (Leibniz IZW, WWF Vietnam, USAID Song Thanh Nature Rerserve)

Excerpt:

The large-antlered muntjac, a small species of deer that dwells in the Annamite mountains of Vietnam and Laos, is dangling dangerously close to extinction. Until recently, researchers had seen the animal just three times since the year 2000. But in November of last year, camera traps captured photographs of a male and female muntjac in Vietnam’s Quang Nam province, raising new hope for the future of a gravely threatened species, Christina Ayele Djossa reports for Atlas Obscura.

Announcing their discovery in a statement this week, scientists and conservationists at WWF-Vietnam and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research revealed that the muntjacs are of reproductive age, which could mean that there is a breeding population in the region.

“It is amazing news,” says Phan Tuan, director of the forest protection department of Quang Nam.

First described in 1994, the large-antlered muntjac has a shoulder height of about 26 inches and typically weighs between 66 and 100 pounds. Over the years, the deer have been aggressively hunted for their meat and their antlers, which are used for medicinal purposes and as trophies, according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The animals are often trapped by illegal wire snares, which are widely used in the forests of central Vietnam; government rangers and WWF forest guards removed over 100,000 snares from just two nature reserves between 2011 and 2017, according to the statement.

[spaceasianmillennial]

Considering that Covid-19 derived from wildlife—either pangolins or bats—it is clear that humans should be backing off their constant intrusions into the final wildlife habitats of Asia. But that is not what is happening. In fact, the pandemic outbreak has actually spurred poaching across Southeast Asia. In Cambodia, three critically endangered Giant Ibises were poached due to a lack of law enforcement thanks to coronavirus, as well as 100 Painted Stork chicks at another site. Glue made from tiger bones is being peddled in China for its alleged health benefits, while bear bile injections are also being recommended to treat Covid-19.

Almost nothing is spared, with even the “flooded forests” on the Tonle Sap Lake in Siem Reap, Cambodia, going up in flames (and with them, cash for carbon credits), and northern Laos almost completely swallowed up by the inferno. The wildlife of these two once-heavily vegetated nations of jungles and rivers has already been hammered by poaching and logging in the past two decades, with Indochinese tigers hunted to extinction in both and the Indochinese leopard down to one handful of individuals in Cambodia’s Mondulkiri province. The wildlife that remains, which includes elephants, clouded leopards, sun bears, and other globally threatened species, will be driven into increasingly small forest pockets that are easy for poachers to access.

Vietnam has fared slightly better, but only relative to conditions of its neighbors. Fires still blanket large swaths of the country, including its biodiverse Annamite cordillera. The spread of fires will likely see species listed by the IUCN as Critically Endangered, such as the saola, the large-antlered muntjac, and the Francois Langur monkey, on a rapid descent into extinction. Furthermore, the current heatwave baking the nation is expected to exacerbate throughout 2020, and the effects of climate change, saline intrusion on the delta, droughts, and abnormal weather patterns are all expected to make this year an extremely trying one for Vietnam.

[bangkokjacknews]

'Barbaric' snares are wiping out Southeast Asia's wild animals

Across Southeast #Asia, wild animals are being #hunted out of existence to feed growing demand for bushmeat, according to conservationists.

Thomas Gray, science director with conservation group Wildlife Alliance, which operates in Cambodia, says that snares -- simple traps made of wire and rope -- have become the single biggest threat to ground-dwelling animals in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos over the last decade.

Snares collected by community rangers in Nakai-Nam Theun -- a protected area in the Annamite Mountains in Laos. The scale of the problem is "phenomenal" says Gray. Between 2010 and 2015, more than 200,000 snares were removed by patrol teams from just five protected areas in the region. But despite these efforts, says Gray, law enforcement patrols can't keep pace with poachers and stop the slaughter. Typically made from motorbike and bicycle brake cables, snares are cheap and simple to construct. Traditionally, hunters made snares from rattan and other natural forest products which were "relatively weak and decomposed relatively quickly," says Gray. Wire snares require much less skill to make and can last for years.

The hunters' targets are animals they can sell as food, including wild pigs, muntjac deer, civets and porcupines. But the tragic thing about snares, says Gray, is that "they take out everything." Animals caught in these "barbaric" devices face a lingering death, he says. A few manage to escape, but are likely to die from their injuries -- sometimes because they have gnawed off a limb to free themselves. Trapped animals without market value are simply left to rot in the forest. Southeast Asia's forests once teemed with myriad species, including sun bears, striped rabbits, marbled cats, hog badgers and monkeys. But the snaring epidemic is leading to what conservationists call "empty forest syndrome." "In some areas there are no mammals larger than a rodent left," says Gray. A perfect storm In Cambodia, setting snares is illegal in protected areas -- where most of the wildlife is found. Selling the meat is also illegal, says Gray. But that has not deterred poachers. Demand for wild meat is fueled in part by rising incomes in the region, says Regine Weckauf, illegal wildlife trade advisor with Fauna & Flora International. Research conducted by the non-profit in Cambodia identified two main types of consumer.

Found with its arm caught in a snare by researchers from the Laos conservation group Anoulak, this stump-tailed macaque was released back into the wild. "In rural areas, people generally consume bushmeat because they like the taste," says Weckauf. "Often, they don't realize it's been sold illegally." For urban consumers, in the capital Phnom Penh and other big cities, eating wild meat is an "elite practice" she says -- and it's almost exclusively men who do it. Procuring wild meat when entertaining associates demonstrates power and status, says Weckauf. "It shows that the man can afford the meat and that he's well connected and knows how to source it." In cities, many consumers know that wild meat is illegal, so providing it also sends the message, "I am untouchable," she says. Similar patterns of consumption have been observed in Vietnam.

A sambar deer caught in a snare in Belum Telemgor forest in northern Malaysia, near the Thai border. According to Gray, the perception of bushmeat as a prestige food has combined with changes to the landscape to create a "perfect storm" for Southeast Asia's wildlife. "Fifty years ago, people would have set snares within walking distance of their village, for their own consumption," he says, "but the rest of the forest wasn't snared." Since then, he says, rampant deforestation, expanding road networks and the ubiquity of motorbikes have led to forest interiors becoming accessible like never before and subsistence hunting has developed into commercial poaching. Cambodia's wildlife is also squeezed because the country has one of the biggest deforestation problems in the world. It was once cloaked in lush forests but huge expanses have been cleared by loggers and to make way for roads, fields and vast rubber plantations. Analysis by scientists from the University of Maryland and Global Forest Watch has revealed that although other countries are losing more forest in terms of area, Cambodia's forests are being cleared especially rapidly. The country lost four times as much forest in 2014 as it did in 2001. However, although logging and deforestation destroy the animals' habitat, Gray says that by the time the trees are cut down, most of the animals have already been killed by hunters.

Snares, home-made guns and chainsaws confiscated by Wildlife Alliance's rangers in Cambodia's Cardamom rainforest. The toll of snaring on many species across the region has been devastating. The saola, a mysterious antelope-like animal that was only discovered by scientists in 1992, is on the brink of extinction -- it has fallen victim to snares despite not being a target species, says Gray. The dhole -- a tawny-colored wild dog -- is also highly endangered. "There are probably fewer dholes left than tigers," says Gray, 'but they don't get the same level of attention." Dholes are especially susceptible to being caught in snares, he says, because they roam over large distances in search of pigs and deer which are, themselves, becoming increasingly rare because of snaring. Gray says dholes are thought to be extinct in Vietnam and are likely to become extinct in Laos. "There is still a decent population in Cambodia, but if we don't solve the snaring crisis, they will go too."

This dhole pup was born in San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park. Its counterparts in the wild are being killed by snares. Changing behavior Wildlife Alliance operates a team of 110 rangers who work "24/7" removing snares from the Cardamom rainforest in western Cambodia , says Gray. In 2018 alone, the team, working in partnership with the Cambodian Ministry of Environment, removed 20,000 snares and destroyed 779 illegal forest camps -- structures built inside protected areas where poachers sleep and store equipment and animal carcasses. Rescued creatures are cared for at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre, which houses more than 1,400 animals -- some of which are released in safe areas and some of which stay there for the rest of their lives, depending on the severity of their injuries. This work is vital, but it's not nearly enough, says Gray.  

A Wildlife Alliance ranger rescues a common palm civet in Cambodia's Cardamom Rainforest. Civets are often found dead in snares, but this one survived the ordeal. Gray believes legislative reform is needed. Currently, snaring is almost a "risk-free crime," he says, because although it is illegal in protected areas, "the chances of catching someone red-handed in the act of setting a snare are close to zero." In 2001, the Cambodian government created the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team in an effort to crack down on the trade. The team says it has saved more than 70,000 live animals, seized 54 tons of animal body parts and arrested 3,400 traffickers. Heng Kimchhay, who heads the team, says the Cambodian government has created more than 27 thousand square miles of protected areas (around 40% of Cambodia's total land mass) and assigned additional personnel to combat poaching on protected land. But, he says, the illegal wildlife trade has grown in size and sophistication and his team needs more staff, more training and more equipment.

Chhouk, a male elephant, was found as a baby wandering alone in the forest in northeastern Cambodia. He had lost a foot to a poacher's snare and was close to death. Wildlife Alliance took him to Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre where he was given a prosthetic foot and has been cared for ever since. Gray would like to see the "intent to snare" treated as a serious crime. "If someone is walking in the forest with snare materials -- such as 50 motorbike brake cables -- they are clearly planning to set snares," he says. But while poaching remains lucrative, there is only so much that legislation and enforcement can achieve. The key to solving the snaring problem, some believe, is behavior change. "We need to understand why people consume bushmeat and the best ways to persuade them to stop," says Weckauf. Fauna & Flora International plans to work with marketing firms and communication specialists to find solutions geared to human psychology, she says. "We want to use the kind of techniques that have successfully persuaded people to wear seat belts, to use mosquito nets and to stop wearing fur," she says. These efforts are essential, says Gray, because otherwise "we face the loss of species, the loss of heritage, and the loss of tens of millions of years of evolution that have created Southeast Asia's unique wildlife."   – You can follow BangkokJack on Instagram, Twitter & Reddit. Or join the free mailing list (top right) Please help us continue to bring the REAL NEWS - PayPal Read the full article

[bangkokjacknews]

'Barbaric' snares are wiping out Southeast Asia's wild animals

Across Southeast #Asia, wild animals are being #hunted out of existence to feed growing demand for bushmeat, according to conservationists.

Thomas Gray, science director with conservation group Wildlife Alliance, which operates in Cambodia, says that snares -- simple traps made of wire and rope -- have become the single biggest threat to ground-dwelling animals in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos over the last decade.

Snares collected by community rangers in Nakai-Nam Theun -- a protected area in the Annamite Mountains in Laos. The scale of the problem is "phenomenal" says Gray. Between 2010 and 2015, more than 200,000 snares were removed by patrol teams from just five protected areas in the region. But despite these efforts, says Gray, law enforcement patrols can't keep pace with poachers and stop the slaughter. Typically made from motorbike and bicycle brake cables, snares are cheap and simple to construct. Traditionally, hunters made snares from rattan and other natural forest products which were "relatively weak and decomposed relatively quickly," says Gray. Wire snares require much less skill to make and can last for years.

The hunters' targets are animals they can sell as food, including wild pigs, muntjac deer, civets and porcupines. But the tragic thing about snares, says Gray, is that "they take out everything." Animals caught in these "barbaric" devices face a lingering death, he says. A few manage to escape, but are likely to die from their injuries -- sometimes because they have gnawed off a limb to free themselves. Trapped animals without market value are simply left to rot in the forest. Southeast Asia's forests once teemed with myriad species, including sun bears, striped rabbits, marbled cats, hog badgers and monkeys. But the snaring epidemic is leading to what conservationists call "empty forest syndrome." "In some areas there are no mammals larger than a rodent left," says Gray. A perfect storm In Cambodia, setting snares is illegal in protected areas -- where most of the wildlife is found. Selling the meat is also illegal, says Gray. But that has not deterred poachers. Demand for wild meat is fueled in part by rising incomes in the region, says Regine Weckauf, illegal wildlife trade advisor with Fauna & Flora International. Research conducted by the non-profit in Cambodia identified two main types of consumer.

Found with its arm caught in a snare by researchers from the Laos conservation group Anoulak, this stump-tailed macaque was released back into the wild. "In rural areas, people generally consume bushmeat because they like the taste," says Weckauf. "Often, they don't realize it's been sold illegally." For urban consumers, in the capital Phnom Penh and other big cities, eating wild meat is an "elite practice" she says -- and it's almost exclusively men who do it. Procuring wild meat when entertaining associates demonstrates power and status, says Weckauf. "It shows that the man can afford the meat and that he's well connected and knows how to source it." In cities, many consumers know that wild meat is illegal, so providing it also sends the message, "I am untouchable," she says. Similar patterns of consumption have been observed in Vietnam.

A sambar deer caught in a snare in Belum Telemgor forest in northern Malaysia, near the Thai border. According to Gray, the perception of bushmeat as a prestige food has combined with changes to the landscape to create a "perfect storm" for Southeast Asia's wildlife. "Fifty years ago, people would have set snares within walking distance of their village, for their own consumption," he says, "but the rest of the forest wasn't snared." Since then, he says, rampant deforestation, expanding road networks and the ubiquity of motorbikes have led to forest interiors becoming accessible like never before and subsistence hunting has developed into commercial poaching. Cambodia's wildlife is also squeezed because the country has one of the biggest deforestation problems in the world. It was once cloaked in lush forests but huge expanses have been cleared by loggers and to make way for roads, fields and vast rubber plantations. Analysis by scientists from the University of Maryland and Global Forest Watch has revealed that although other countries are losing more forest in terms of area, Cambodia's forests are being cleared especially rapidly. The country lost four times as much forest in 2014 as it did in 2001. However, although logging and deforestation destroy the animals' habitat, Gray says that by the time the trees are cut down, most of the animals have already been killed by hunters.

Snares, home-made guns and chainsaws confiscated by Wildlife Alliance's rangers in Cambodia's Cardamom rainforest. The toll of snaring on many species across the region has been devastating. The saola, a mysterious antelope-like animal that was only discovered by scientists in 1992, is on the brink of extinction -- it has fallen victim to snares despite not being a target species, says Gray. The dhole -- a tawny-colored wild dog -- is also highly endangered. "There are probably fewer dholes left than tigers," says Gray, 'but they don't get the same level of attention." Dholes are especially susceptible to being caught in snares, he says, because they roam over large distances in search of pigs and deer which are, themselves, becoming increasingly rare because of snaring. Gray says dholes are thought to be extinct in Vietnam and are likely to become extinct in Laos. "There is still a decent population in Cambodia, but if we don't solve the snaring crisis, they will go too."

This dhole pup was born in San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park. Its counterparts in the wild are being killed by snares. Changing behavior Wildlife Alliance operates a team of 110 rangers who work "24/7" removing snares from the Cardamom rainforest in western Cambodia , says Gray. In 2018 alone, the team, working in partnership with the Cambodian Ministry of Environment, removed 20,000 snares and destroyed 779 illegal forest camps -- structures built inside protected areas where poachers sleep and store equipment and animal carcasses. Rescued creatures are cared for at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre, which houses more than 1,400 animals -- some of which are released in safe areas and some of which stay there for the rest of their lives, depending on the severity of their injuries. This work is vital, but it's not nearly enough, says Gray.  

A Wildlife Alliance ranger rescues a common palm civet in Cambodia's Cardamom Rainforest. Civets are often found dead in snares, but this one survived the ordeal. Gray believes legislative reform is needed. Currently, snaring is almost a "risk-free crime," he says, because although it is illegal in protected areas, "the chances of catching someone red-handed in the act of setting a snare are close to zero." In 2001, the Cambodian government created the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team in an effort to crack down on the trade. The team says it has saved more than 70,000 live animals, seized 54 tons of animal body parts and arrested 3,400 traffickers. Heng Kimchhay, who heads the team, says the Cambodian government has created more than 27 thousand square miles of protected areas (around 40% of Cambodia's total land mass) and assigned additional personnel to combat poaching on protected land. But, he says, the illegal wildlife trade has grown in size and sophistication and his team needs more staff, more training and more equipment.

Chhouk, a male elephant, was found as a baby wandering alone in the forest in northeastern Cambodia. He had lost a foot to a poacher's snare and was close to death. Wildlife Alliance took him to Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre where he was given a prosthetic foot and has been cared for ever since. Gray would like to see the "intent to snare" treated as a serious crime. "If someone is walking in the forest with snare materials -- such as 50 motorbike brake cables -- they are clearly planning to set snares," he says. But while poaching remains lucrative, there is only so much that legislation and enforcement can achieve. The key to solving the snaring problem, some believe, is behavior change. "We need to understand why people consume bushmeat and the best ways to persuade them to stop," says Weckauf. Fauna & Flora International plans to work with marketing firms and communication specialists to find solutions geared to human psychology, she says. "We want to use the kind of techniques that have successfully persuaded people to wear seat belts, to use mosquito nets and to stop wearing fur," she says. These efforts are essential, says Gray, because otherwise "we face the loss of species, the loss of heritage, and the loss of tens of millions of years of evolution that have created Southeast Asia's unique wildlife."   – You can follow BangkokJack on Instagram, Twitter & Reddit. Or join the free mailing list (top right) Please help us continue to bring the REAL NEWS - PayPal Read the full article

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from The Revelator:

First recognized as a new species in 1993, the large-antlered muntjac is already critically endangered and heading fast toward extinction. As muntjac go, the large-antlered is the largest species, but muntjac in general are small members of the deer family Cervidae. The species is facing a "quiet extinction," hidden away in a miniscule global range in the Annamite Mountains of Laos and Vietnam.

Males, like other male muntjac, have long, sharp canine teeth they use in fighting.

Widespread intensive snaring throughout their small range is the number-one problem. This snaring is driven by a booming wildlife trade that encompasses the derivatives of many species — from well-known products of tigers and pangolins to gelatin derived from primate bones, turtle shells and medicinal plants. The large-antlered muntjac isn't a particular focus of the trade, but snares are indiscriminate. Trade is booming because of the economic and population growth of East Asian countries. Roads, dams, mines and other infrastructure investments make things worse, and because of sustained economic growth these are on the rise.