Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
of Mondulkiri. Reformed poachers often make the best trackers and park guards. They are
comfortable with few amenities, and the rough life of the bush is as familiar to them as the
morning commute is to urban dwellers. More to the point, they know guns and the mind of
the poacher.
A rapid survey in 2010 gave Kha and Barney a chance to reunite and enabled the rest of
our group to meet Chana, a Cambodian tiger researcher, and Tom Gray, an ornithologist from
the United Kingdom who was transforming himself into a tiger prey specialist. Also with us
was Craig Bruce, a wildlife enforcement and protected-area specialist who for the past three
years had headed the conservation program in Mondulkiri. Despite the mountains of inter-
national funding flowing into Cambodia, little went to wildlife protection: the salaries of the
ninety-five-person protection staff in their bright green uniforms, even the uniforms them-
selves, were courtesy of the WWF and Craig's efforts.
Early the next morning, Kha, Chana, and Barney led our group on a two-hour march across
burned stubble to a
trapeang
, or natural water hole, to check on the camera traps. One of Kha,
Tom, and Chana's tasks was to map every depression and determine which held permanent
sources of water. Permanent water holes are excellent places to set up camera traps to photo-
graph species during the intense dry season. We straggled across the landscape accompanied
by two domesticated elephants attached to the patrol staff. Above us, two species of minivets
flashed in the morning sunlight. Black-headed orioles chortled their songs and red-breasted
parakeets sailed by.
Within a kilometer of the trapeang, a penetrating rolling bugle caught our attention. “Some
kind of woodpecker,” offered one of the hikers. I knew it was no woodpecker, but I had
to click through my memory bank for a few seconds before remembering the unforgettable
sound of the sarus crane from my days in Nepal. The cranes had departed before we got to
the water hole, but another large silvery-gray bird flew up from a marshy area—a giant ibis!
Our early luck was astonishing for even the most jaded in our party.
Tom and Chana walked over to the camera trap and retrieved the footage. They had relied
on Kha, who could read game trails invisible to others, to place the cameras for best effect.
We were all curious to see the results. With the sun rising in the morning sky, we returned to
base.
Back at the station, Tom plugged the memory card into a reader and downloaded the most
recent pictures. We gathered around his laptop like eager children waiting to open a new
video game. The first images revealed the waterhole regulars: wild boars, barking deer, and
civets. There were also carnivores: several kinds of small cats, more civets, and a leopard!
No tigers yet, but the team was hopeful, looking forward.
The number and variety of images were impressive. Of particular interest were the pictures
of the tiger's prey—gaurs, bantengs, and especially Eld's deer. For decades, first the Viet-
