CAMBODIA
Until recently, few cared to venture into the Cardamom Mountains in Phnom Penh situated in a remote corner of Cambodia. The reason being mainly because the mountains were the last refuge of the Khmer Rouge guerillas and were made impenetrable with innumerable landmines.
With the end of the war, the guerillas moved on, leaving behind them a treasure trove of exotic wildlife preserved in almost pristine surroundings. On a recent expedition to the Cardamoms, scientists discovered plants and strange creatures that had survived the ravages of time. There is the nearly extinct Siamese crocodile, threatened species of tigers, elephants and wild cattle, a dozen new types of brightly-coloured birds and hundreds of previously unknown species of insects. Besides, there is the exciting possibility of coming across more exotic flora and fauna with further probing.
"This is how the rest of Asia used to be,' said Jennifer Daltry on her return from the mountains, where she was scientific coordinator of the first full-scale exploration of the Cardamom range conducted by the British group called Fauna and Flora International. She said the expedition had chronicled at least six or seven new species of amphibians, one new snake specie, several new species of small mammals and at least 800 new species of insects. "It is a surviving pocket of near-intact wildlife that's been nearly untouched by history.'
While the rest of Cambodia has lost around 20 per cent of its forest cover, scientists marvel at the rich natural and wildlife diversity that persists in the Cardamom Mountains. Perhaps this was possible because the Cardamoms are a range of mountains that are hidden behind other ranges deep in Southern California. History tells us that in the old days the mountains fell in the route of elephants carrying goods from the small seaport of Koh Kong. Today, they have been thrown open to modern scientific researchers who venture inside with the aid of former guerillas in order to avoid the landmines.
Researchers, who have been assisted in their endeavour by the Cambodian Wildlife Protection Office and the ministries of forestry and environment, said it would take further expeditions to determine if the mountain range was also home to the rare Javan rhinoceros and the even rarer khiting vor. The latter is a strange half-sheep half-antelope animal specie with curlicue horns, popularly called the snake-eating cow.
The horns of the khiting vor have been found in the past and their genetic material analysed. However, the animal was not seen by scientists in the recent expedition to the Cardamoms. "To my knowledge, this is the only large mammal on the face of the earth that we know positively exists but we have never seen,' said Hunter Weiler, the Cambodian liaison officer for the British group.
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