Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
At the restaurant, we chose a table directly across from a countertop laden with large jars of
seahorses, insects, lizards, and flowers suspended in rice-based alcohol. These were specialty
cocktails thought to be infused by the essences and powers of the creatures within. One vat
filled with baby king cobras sported a name on the label: “One Night, Five Times.” Perhaps
here was an insight, in the bottle, that locally held perceptions, however misguided, trumped
scientific rationales. Vietnam was rapidly becoming the end point for Asia's rarities, which
ended up in a bottle or as a cream or powder. If the mind-set here is to change, it will be
people such as Vy, dedicated local scientists who can connect with a larger audience in their
native language, who will lead the way.
The main purpose of our visit was to check on the rhinos, so the next day we headed with
Vy to Cat Tien National Park. In the village of Cat Tien, we drove to the edge of the Dong
Nai River and waited for a barge to ferry us across. On the way there, we had traversed part
of what was seen as the “buffer zone” between Cat Tien and Cat Loc. It offered little cover
for a passing rhino; that much was clear. In fact, in this section the buffer zone was a string of
villages with hardly a tree in sight. Progress was being made on paper in establishing a legal
buffer zone, but the effects on wildlife restoration seemed invisible.
Once across the river and inside the park, however, we found ourselves in a green wall of
thick forest exploding with the sounds of birds. Several species of kingfishers wailed from
the riverbanks; parrots and parakeets flew overhead; hornbills announced their arrival in the
fig trees. By the end of our morning's walk, we had recorded nearly seventy-five bird spe-
cies, thanks largely to Vy, who instantly recognized the songs of whatever was hiding in the
tangles of vines ahead of us. He pointed out a scaly-breasted partridge walking along the
forest floor. Other avian highlights in this former battle zone were an Asian paradise flycatch-
er and a host of black-and-red broadbills. That the words “paradise” and “former battle zone”
could be used in the same sentence is a testament to the powers of nature to recover. Paradise
flycatchers are exquisite birds, with males bearing long white tails that flutter like ribbons
when they fly through the trees. Common across Asia, they sit on tiny cup nests that seem
much too small to support the female and her eggs. The black-and-red broadbill, which boasts
a pattern of bright crimson and a broad bill the aqua-blue color of a robin's egg, made me
think of a small crow that had agreed to a total makeover.
At lunch, we resumed a discussion we'd been having of the Javan rhino. The Cat Loc pop-
ulation was already what biologists term “ecologically extinct” because they no longer played
their natural role as landscape engineers. They were also, it seemed, about to pass from ecolo-
gical extinction to true oblivion. A last-ditch proposal to keep that from happening involved
an influx of new blood from Indonesia. If it turned out that the remaining individuals in Cat
Loc were all female, it might be possible for the Vietnamese to negotiate with the Indone-
sian government for stud service or even permanent residence of several males and females
that could be shifted from Ujung Kulon National Park in western Java to Cat Tien. However,
