Nine species have been recorded in Cambodia for the first time during the first ever comprehensive biodiversity survey of Virachey National Park.
They include the critically endangered large-antlered muntjac, a species of glass lizard, a gecko, two bat species, an edible mushroom and three other plant species (an orchid, an arum and a ginger).
“Discovering nine species that were not previously recorded in the country is incredibly exciting,” says Pablo Sinovas, Country Director for Fauna & Flora’s Cambodia Programme.
"It reaffirms just how special this landscape is and how much there is still to uncover and protect. For me, the most exciting find was the large-antlered muntjac, one of the rarest and most threatened deer species. The fact that the camera trap photographing this species was in the most remote, hardest-to-reach corner of the national park made the huge logistical and physical effort to get there absolutely worth it.”
Led by Fauna & Flora, in collaboration with Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment and local communities, the survey’s findings highlight the importance of Virachey National Park, a south-western extension of the Annamite Mountain range - a relatively untouched haven for biodiversity that stretches around 1,100 kilometres through Laos, Vietnam and northeast Cambodia.
Referred to by Fauna & Flora as the ‘Amazon of Asia’, the Annamites is home to a vast array of species found nowhere else in the world. Researchers believe there are likely to be many more species present that are yet to be discovered.
Located at the point where the Annamite Mountains and Cambodia’s lowlands meet, Virachey National Park is part of one of the largest expanses of forest in mainland Southeast Asia. The survey also confirmed the presence of many threatened species, such as the red-shanked douc langur, Sunda pangolin, clouded leopard, dhole and sun bear.
Three species of frog recorded during the survey had only been seen in Cambodia once, two of which had never been seen as adults. As well as serving as a sanctuary for iconic wildlife, the park sustains Indigenous communities who have relied on its resources for generations.
While Virachey is officially a protected area and one of only two Cambodian ASEAN Heritage Parks, its vast expanse, covering 4,057 km2, is still largely unexplored and understudied, largely due to the difficulty of accessing much of the park’s remote, challenging terrain, including steep slopes, thick vegetation and rivers.
The new survey used a range of techniques and technology to overcome the challenges, including camera traps and eDNA (environmental DNA sampling). E. denticulus, one of the two bat species recorded for the first time in Cambodia, seem to be relatively common within the park. There also appear to be around 2,000 groups of the endangered northern yellow-cheeked gibbon in Virachey National Park, confirming the park as the most significant stronghold for the species globally. The park remains the only location in Cambodia where many regionally endemic reptiles and amphibians exist. The tree-focused section of the survey also identified at least eight rare tree species.
With threats to the park’s wildlife including hunting, including snares, habitat loss, and the presence of domestic dogs, data from the new survey is critical in “strengthening the case for protecting the park,” says Sinovas. “We’re working with the Ministry of Environment and local communities to translate the data into action, to identify and implement the best possible outcomes for the park’s biodiversity and for the people who depend on it. By knowing what’s at stake, we’re better equipped to highlight the park’s values and to define suitable management options that will secure the park’s future.”
Main image: large-antlered muntjac/Fauna & Flora
More wildlife stories form around the world
- Climate scientists are studying these weird icy mounds in the Arctic - here's why
- A great predator is slipping through a hidden passage into the rivers and lakes of Alaska
- This big cat skull was found in a cave in Portugal. But all is not as it first seemed…
- Why scientists extracted blood from eight dogs in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone