Animals thought extinct found in remote Cambodian jungle:

October 5, 2000 6:06 PM

Animals thought extinct found in remote Cambodian jungle: British scientists have found a wilderness in the Cardamom region of Cambodia where exotic species, some though to be extinct, have been found. These include the Siamese crocodile, the wolf snake (a new species so named because of its dog-like fangs), large populations of tigers and Asian elephants, and the gower, a forest cow. Ironically, the habitat was protected from significant human intrusion because it was a longtime Khmer Rouge stronghold and also because routes lead to and from it are landmined.
posted by jhiggy (6 comments total)

Call me sick, but I hope that they keep the routes nicely landmined.
posted by hobbes at 7:08 PM on October 5, 2000

Forest cow.

*giggle*
posted by stefnet at 8:45 PM on October 5, 2000

I was thinking the same thing, myself, hobbes. This has got to be one of the cheapest, most reliable ways ever devised to protect a threatened area. I wonder if the Animal Liberation Front has caught on to this yet?

Too bad there are certain ethical difficulties...

You know, this could work without necessarily having to plant actual land mines. It seems to me, if you just put up the land mine warning signs, like they have in the Falklands, you could accomplish the same effect without actually hurting anybody. Just think - spend a few million on signs printed in Portuguese, ring the Amazon with 'em, and watch the traffic tickets pile up as the logging operators race their skidders and bulldozers right back to civilisation.

-Mars, tongue firmly in cheek
posted by Mars Saxman at 9:25 PM on October 5, 2000

Dodo bird, siamese crocadile, asian elephant; all these animals are boring. What puts you to sleep faster than something called a 'Forest Cow'? Where are the Tyrannosaurs? The man eating Raptors? I want Nessie!
posted by tomorama at 9:55 PM on October 5, 2000

Too bad so much of the rest of the country and region has already been destroyed.

So much of Cambodia has faced wholesale and illegal logging (by corrupt government officials). Before that there was the indisciminant US carpet bombing and deforestation campaigns.

With the demise of the Khmer Rouge, I'm sure the land mines won't delay the loggers for long.

posted by lagado at 10:01 PM on October 5, 2000

This sounds to me like a sure sign that we human-types have spread ourselves into too many places that could well do without us. In exurban areas of the U.S. (and doubtless other countries), the increasing complaints from residents that "Deer and other wild creatures are eating my garden!" as well as the presence of bears in suburbia (or rather, presence of suburbia in bear habitats) illustrate the extent that human habitation has driven animals out of their natural settings.

By the bye, the same phenomenon can be found in the Korean DMZ.
posted by Avogadro at 5:59 AM on October 6, 2000