Laos - Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Northern Thailand - page 759

IRRAWADDY DOLPHIN
Beak-nosed and less extroverted than their bottlenose counterparts, these shy and critic-
ally endangered mammals inhabit a 190km stretch of the Mekong River between Cam-
bodia and Laos. Recent estimates suggest that between 64 and 76 members survive. The
best place to see them in Laos is off the southern tip of Don Khon, where a small pod con-
gregates in a deepwater pool. Gill-net fishing and pollution have wiped out their numbers.
During their reign in the late 1970s, the Khmer Rouge used to dynamite them indiscrimin-
ately.
BLACK-CRESTED GIBBON
The gibbon is the jungle's answer to Usain Bolt. These heavily poached, soulful animals
sing with beautiful voices - usually at dawn - which echo hauntingly around the forest,
and majestically race through the canopy quicker than any other ape. Usually males are
black and females golden, and, in Laos, they only exist in Bokeo Province (home of The
Gibbon Experience ( Click here ) ). The black-crested gibbon is one of the world's rarest,
most endangered species of gibbon.