Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
1950s through the bone-jarring backroads of Cambodia. When his caravan became stuck, the
party of sixty members resorted to elephant-back or slogged on foot in search of the wild
cattle of backwoods Cambodia.
Suddenly a herd of brown-and-white cow-like creatures galloped across our
track—thirteen graceful bantengs, mostly females with calves, and a dominant bull bringing
up the rear. By the time we reached the headquarters of the intensive protection area in a vil-
lage called Mereuch, another herd had crossed our path. “When I first explored this area in
2000,” Barney announced, “I saw only two bantengs in twenty-two days.” The recovery of
rare wild cattle was significant—not only because they are in decline across their range but
also because bantengs are an important prey species for tigers. The vast Mondulkiri Protected
Forest reserve is one of the few places where tigers are thought to persist in Cambodia.
Ancient Cambodia is best known for Angkor Wat, more than 300 kilometers east of where
we were. The civilization of Angkor reached its pinnacle in the thirteenth century, when the
city was larger than London and the long-reigning Khmer empire stretched across the land-
scape we were visiting. If the spectacular temples of Angkor Wat present Cambodia in its
finest epoch, the Khmer Rouge regime, Pol Pot, and the killing fields epitomize the nadir
of Cambodia's recent past. A country of 4 million people lost half its population during the
worst episode of genocide in the past fifty years.
Today Cambodia has the largest wilderness area east of the Mekong River, yet its Eastern
Plains landscape is perhaps the best-kept secret among wildlife conservationists in Asia.
Covering an area of 18,000 square kilometers, the combined areas of Mondulkiri, Lomphat,
Phnom Prich, Snoul, Seima, and Nam Lyr are a remarkable anomaly in this Southeast Asian
region characterized by isolated forest fragments. Part of the reason for the integrity of this
landscape is that hostilities during the Indochina Wars kept the loggers out. A severe form of
malaria common in the area also discouraged development. Further, even though the popula-
tion of Cambodia has reached 8 million, three-quarters of all Cambodians live in the capital
of Phnom Penh. The sparsely populated countryside that once harbored large stretches of un-
broken forest has been changing, however. A few years ago—in 2008—Cambodia had one
of the highest rates of illegal logging in the world, and it is still high today. According to one
observer, forests west of the Mekong were and still are destined for Thailand. Forests east of
the Mekong may eventually be cut and sent to Vietnam. Already, the Vietnamese are truck-
ing out as much timber as they can across the porous border. The forests are still extensive
in this region, but recovering this lost treasure will require that illegal logging be ended and
forest protection improved.
The dry forest, populated by widely spaced trees in the dipterocarp family, the dominant
group of trees of Southeast Asia, appeared more like a woodland or savanna. Most trees had
shed their leaves during the dry period, adding to the sense of openness. Only along the stre-
ambeds did we pass through dense stands of tropical trees and vines. In 1951, Charles Whar-
