Rare animals recorded in Laos

[Guest guest]

http://www.thedailygreen.com/2007/07/24/rare-deer-photographed-for-first-time/42\

58/

Rare Deer Photographed For First Time

 

*Large-Antlered Muntjac Is More Often Seen Dead, Being Carried Off By

Poachers*

 

If you've never heard of the large-antlered muntjac, you can be forgiven. It

hadn't even been photographed in the wild until now.

 

The Wildlife Conservation Society used a " camera trap " — a motion-sensitive

camera placed in the jungle of Laos — to capture an image of the reclusive

and endangered animal. The WCS is working with the Nam Theun 2 Watershed

Management and Protection Authority on conserving the rare wildlife in the

Nakai Nam Theun National Protected Area, and preventing illegal poaching — a

major threat to the muntjac.

 

The immediate threat of poaching was illustrated when the same camera caught

an image of poachers equipped with nighttime hunting gear just a few days

later.

 

<http://www.thedailygreen.com/wp-content/uploads/thedailygreen/2007/07/poachers2\

..jpg>

 

The 110-pound animal stands about 30 inches tall, and it has the largest

antlers of any muntjac species found in Indochina. It was only described by

scientists for the first time in the 1990s.

 

The Annamite Mountains, where the photographs were taken, is a densely

forested mountain chain that straddles the Laos-Vietnam border and is

considered one the world's biodiversity 'hotspots.' Scientists consider the

loss of biodiversity one of the major concerns in modern environmental

science. The 1,500-square mile protected area where the animal was seen is

the largest of its kind in that part of the world, and was made possible

with a compromise that brings money for conservation from the construction

of a large hydroelectric dam.

 

The camera trap also caught an image of an Annamite striped rabbit, one of

the world's rarest and least-known members of the rabbit/hare family. The

species was first discovered in a fresh food market in Laos.

 

The region is home to several other endangered animals, such as the

extremely rare saola — an antelope-like animal, also discovered in the 1990s

— plus tigers, Asian elephants, and what is considered one of the world's

most beautiful monkeys, the red-shanked douc. Recent surveys identified what

are thought to be more new species of animals and plants, but this awaits

verification.

 

" This region is extraordinary for it's distinctive wildlife, " said Dr.

Arlyne Johnson, co-director of the WCS Lao Program.