Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
resident and migrating species. Coastal and inland waterways of the delta and southern
peninsula are especially important habitats for Southeast Asian waterfowl.
The most comprehensive wildlife survey of Myanmar available was undertaken by the
Bombay Natural History Society between 1912 and 1921 and published as the Mammal
Survey of India, Burma and Ceylon.
Endangered Species
Of some 8233 known breeding species (of which 7000 are plants) in Myanmar, 132 of
these (animals, birds and plants) are endangered, including the flying squirrel, tiger, Ir-
rawaddy dolphin and three-striped box turtle. There are believed to be as few as 1130
wild Asian elephants throughout Myanmar, according to a symposium convened by the
Smithsonian in 2004. Paradoxically, domesticated or captive elephants - of which Myan-
mar is believed to have around 15,000 - are widely used by the logging industry to
knock down the forests on which their wild cousins depend. Both the one-horned (Javan)
rhinoceros and the Asiatic two-horned (Sumatran) rhinoceros are believed to survive in
very small numbers near the Thai border in Kayin State. The rare red panda (or cat bear)
was last sighted in northern Myanmar in the early 1960s but is thought to still live in
Kachin State forests above 6500ft.
Deforestation poses the greatest threat to wildlife, but even in areas where habitat loss
isn't a problem, hunting threatens to wipe out the rarer animal species. Wildlife laws are
seldom enforced and poaching remains a huge problem in Myanmar.
PLIGHT OF MYANMAR'S TIGERS
'There are no more tigers left.' This was the bleak assessment of Bawk Jar, as re-
ported by the Irrawaddyin November 2012, based on the environmentalist and
Kachin civil rights activist's own experiences and interviews with local trackers in
the Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve. Covering 8452 sq miles, the reserve was estab-
lished in 2001 by the ruling junta with the support of Dr Alan Rabinowitz, executive
director at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) at the time and now president
and CEO of the US-based NGO Panthera.
In a 2008 interview in the Myanmar Times, Rabinowitz applauded the govern-
ment for creating the park. 'If tourists come and spend money to see wildlife, then
the local people start feeling that wildlife is more valuable alive than dead', he said.
The problem has been that tourism has never taken off in this region blighted by
