Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Consequently, fig-eating monkeys are usually the first mammals to be hunted out of tropical
forests. Yet the silver langur seemed locally abundant. I asked, “How did a rare fruit-eating
primate prosper in a forest once filled with hunters?” Silver langurs enjoy ingesting the pois-
onous seeds of a tree, Kha replied. Therefore, local hunters wouldn't waste a bullet on them.
The tree species is
Strychnosnux-vomica
, and its seeds contain strychnine. Like the seed-eat-
ing saki monkeys of Peru that Sue Palminteri studied, the silver langur makes its flesh toxic
to predatory mammals and to humans by eating seeds laced with nasty chemicals.
The presence and future of wildlife in the shadow of war, in Cambodia and beyond, is
challenging to predict. Certainly in some buffer areas between warring factions, virtual no-
man's-lands laden with mines and dangerous to enter, wildlife hung on. When wars ended,
these became source populations to replenish emptied forests. One excellent example is the
flooded grasslands of South Sudan, which for much of the year are impenetrable by armies
and thus have escaped heavy fighting. The white-eared kob and other large mammals are still
abundant there. But in many other war zones in more open areas, where intense fighting has
raged, wild animals have been easy targets. Although wars and violence have appeared to
decline over the past centuries, according to author Steven Pinker, the diffuse effects on en-
dangered wildlife populations have yet to be realized.
Vietnam and Cambodia seem to be on different trajectories. Vietnam has abundant conserva-
tion plans, but infighting among departments and lack of support from the central government
stymie restoration of rarities. Cambodia is more conservation friendly and has more habitat to
work with. Cambodia is poised to recover past treasures, but both nations will require more
aggressive conservation measures to speed recovery.
Back at the ranger station at Mereuch, we came upon the casing of a cluster bomb dropped
by US forces during the Vietnam War. Such sores remain, but the landscape is healing; the
soldiers have gone home or, like Kha, have become the backbone of the wildlife protection
units. In Cambodia, the ghosts of Indochina can come out of hiding now and regain their lost
homeland. The ruins of Angkor Wat feature bas-reliefs of the wild cattle of Cambodia—the
banteng, gaur, wild water buffalo, and kouprey. Three of the four remain and have a great
future in Mondulkiri, if the conservation world steps up to assist. Cambodian conservation-
ists are taking concrete steps to rebuild the tiger prey base. Once a solid prey base is restored,
the government of Thailand, India, or Nepal could, as a goodwill gesture, offer Cambodia
a nucleus of adult tigers. Cambodia's Eastern Plains landscape could be the first wild cattle
wilderness in the world that is home to a core breeding population of tigers. We can almost
see the recovery happening before our eyes. The wildlands sleeping east of Angkor may be
about to reawaken.
