The Asian Giant Softshell Turtle, Pelochelys cantorii , a relatively rare aquatic turtle, is commonly found in the Xekong River in Attapeu and Xekong provinces, according to a press release from the Vientiane office of the World Wildlife Fund.
Villagers in this area were unaware of the endangered status of the turtle because it is still frequently observed throughout this basin and well-known to local people living along the river...more

The species is one of the world's largest turtles, and is said to be on the brink of extinction.

“In Vietnam and Thailand , the turtle is nearly extinct, but we are not sure of its status in Laos and Cambodia ,” said the WWF coordinator on species, habitat and ecosystems, Mr Mark Benuijen yesterday.

He said that although the species can breed at least twice a year and lays many eggs, both animals and humans like to eat the eggs, resulting in the turtle's rarity. “If you remove this hindrance to its reproduction, the species population will likely rebound rapidly,” he added.

The press adds that the rare species of soft-shelled turtle was recently also rediscovered in Cambodia , with the identification of an individual weighing 11kg.

Earlier in 2007, specimens of the turtles were found during the WWF's surveys of the Mekong River in northern Cambodia and attracted global media attention.

“This incredible discovery means that a unique turtle can be saved from disappearing from our planet,” said David Emmett, a Conservation International wildlife biologist from the WWF, at the time of the discovery in Cambodia .

“We thought it might be almost gone, but found it in abundance in this one pristine stretch of the Mekong , making the area the world's most important site for saving this particular species.”

Official sightings of this rare aquatic turtle had not been documented in Cambodia since 2003.

The WWF Aquatic Resources Management to Improve Rural Livelihoods in the Xekong Basin Project (ARL Xekong Basin Project) began using photos of the turtle and another soft-shelled species, the Asiatic Softshell Turtle or Amyda cartilaginea (thought to be more common), in discussions with local fishermen throughout the basin.

The results of these discussions were surprising and very encouraging. It was found that Pelochelys cantorii is well-known throughout the basin, and local communities consider it “almost as common” as Amyda cartilaginea .

The WWF's project team discussed specific sightings with local fishermen, and photographed a recently-captured specimen.

Local fishermen stated that both species are sometimes inadvertently captured on long-line hooks targeting fish.

Most turtle species in Laos are listed as “Managed Wild and Aquatic Species” under National Decree 360/2003 (“Management Regulations for Aquatic animals and Wildlife”) and the hunting of these species is closely regulated by law.

Despite this, both species of soft-shelled turtle, as well as most hard-shelled turtles, are highly threatened by local and international trade. There is a strong market demand for turtles caught by local fishermen.

The ARL Xekong Basin Project plans to continue to pursue issues related to soft-shelled turtles, with the help of local communities and management agencies.

This will include raising awareness among local communities about the unique and fragile nature of these species and the potential for community efforts to identify and protect important soft-shelled turtle habitats.

The project is currently working with 30 communities to manage and protect essential aquatic habitat types across the Xekong river basin in Laos.

WWF Laos is also working with local authorities to clarify institutional responsibility for enforcing regulations related to aquatic resource management, and supporting the Department of Livestock and Fisheries in the development of a legal framework for fisheries and aquatic resources management.

By Vientiane Times
(Latest Update September 14, 2007)

Woman Stores Tigers in FridgePolice found two frozen tigers in a fridge and two soup kettles filled with animal bones in an outdoor kitchen in Hanoi.

Police found two frozen tigers in a fridge and two soup kettles filled with animal bones in an outdoor kitchen in Hanoi, Vietnamese newspapers reported on Wednesday.

The 40-year-old woman confessed to police she hired three experts to cook tiger bones to make traditional medicines that she sold for about $800 per 100 grams. Police arrested the woman and the three cooks...more

The woman stored the tigers in a fridge inside her apartment and cooked outside the building in an area where people regularly gathered to eat porridge for breakfast.

Although Vietnam is party to a treaty to protect endangered species, animals and animal parts are still smuggled from neighbouring countries and around Vietnam for use as medicine.

"She has been doing this publicly for a long time," Tienphong (Vanguard) newspaper quoted a neighbour as saying. "The smell from the kitchen polluted the neighbourhood."

The two adult Indochinese tigers, weighing 250 kg and estimated to cost about $20,000 each, could have been bought from Myanmar or Laos, newspaper reports quoted officials as saying.

"The tigers could have been bought in Laos and transported back to Vietnam by ambulances or hidden in coffins," forest ranger Vuong Tri Hoa was quoted as saying by Nong Nghiep Vietnam (Agriculture Vietnam) newspaper.

Police also found four bear paws, ivory and various other wild animal parts in the woman's apartment on Tuesday, the reports said.

Last month, eight men were jailed for up to 11-½ years for poisoning a tiger in a zoo and selling it for $15,000 in southern Tien Giang province.

Vietnam signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, in 1994 and conservationists said only about 150 tigers survive in the wild in the Southeast Asian country.

Source: www.javno.com/en

Laos provides an abundant habitat for wildlife species. Often new species are found, but they become endangered relatively quickly because people have inadequate information on how to protect them from exploitation.

Laos , the least densely populated country in Asia , has produced several wildlife discoveries in recent years, including the rock rat, found last year in Khammuan province.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) notes that nine amphibians have been discovered in Laos by scientists Mr Bryan ... more

Stuart of Chicago 's Field Museum and his collaborators since 2002, but these are threatened by habitat destruction and the illegal wildlife trade.

Six new species of frogs have been discovered in Laos over a recent two-year period, according to the Bronx Zoo-based WCS.

Three newly discovered frog species are described in the recent issue of Copeia, the journal of the American Society of Herpetologists and Ichthyologists. WCS says little is known about the new frogs, other than where they were found and how they compare to similar species.

“Now that these species have been documented we can go back and start to learn something about their biology,” said Mr Stuart. Scientists from the American Museum of Natural History and the Russian Academy of Sciences were also involved in the new study.

Biologists are regularly finding new species of amphibians in Laos , as once-isolated and scientifically unexplored areas are investigated.

“ Laos often finds new species because we don't have a large population, we don't use many chemicals in agriculture and the important aspect is we don't have a lot heavy industry. Moreover, some areas are untouched and green, proving an essential home to sustain biodiversity and wildlife species,” said Dr Niane Sivongxay, the Head of the Zoology unit in the Faculty of Biology at the National University of Laos (NUOL).

“But as fast as we describe new species we also identify new threats,” she said.

“Traditional hunting is an important threat but often it is not the greatest. New industries, logging, agriculture, dams and forests if not planned properly can be a greater threat. Climate change is killing salamanders – the dramatic global decline of amphibians may be directly connected to global warming and natural disasters,” she said.

She is concerned that hunting is decreasing the numbers of salamanders. They may become extinct due to over-hunting. Salamanders are now an endangered species. Villagers sell them to foreign visitors for only 5,000 kip but foreigners sell them on in their own countries for as much as two million kip (US$200), said Dr Niane.

“Some villagers hunt them for medicine, as they believe these strange animals can heal rheumatism and relieve physical pain. But we think they could be poisonous because they smell bad and are sticky when we touch them,” she explained.

“However, we're trying to determine whether they are poisonous or good medicine. NUOL and the WCS are working closely together in effort to gather information, identify the biodiversity of this new species and prevent it from exploitation,” she said.

A good example is a new species of salamander discovered and documented last year by Mr Stuart. This salamander, known by local villagers as Phatin, is gaining attention from foreign scientists, drawn to Lao zoological hotspots. NUOL teachers are now focusing on the species, and are assigning it to students to conduct further research.

A rare and unusual animal, the new species of salamander, called Paramesotriton Laoensis by the scientists, has already been found for sale in foreign countries as pets.

Dr Niane took time out to mark Wildlife Conservation Day by explaining the details of the salamander family. A salamander, she said, is group of animals which have legs and a tail like a lizard, but skin like a frog. Like frogs in the tadpole stage, they breathe through gills.

Dr Niane and a team from WCS have gone to several parts of the country in search of salamanders. She explained that the amphibian mainly resides near water and in mountain areas 10,000 feet above the sea level in temperatures ranging from 18 to 23 Celsius. Because it is a new species, information temperature and habitat and information may not be entirely accurate.

According to Dr Niane, many salamanders have been found in Xieng Khuang province. They have also been discovered in Xayaboury and Khammuan provinces.

“The new species of salamander is in fact a tadpole gone wrong,” said Australian environmentalist Mr Ian Tait. “Evolution finds many ways to produce new species. In the case of the salamander we have an amphibian that got stuck in the tadpole stage. Instead of losing its tail when it started to grow leg s and turn into a frog it kept the tail and stayed in or near water.”

Source: Vientianetimes

Photo: Striped Rabbit Revealed in Lao PDR Forest. To watch Lao animal treasures, click here

Protecting Wildlife Treasures in the Jungles of Lao PDR

June 1, 2007—A small country with some of the most diverse and rare wildlife in the world, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) is one of Southeast Asia’s hidden biological treasures. Through its protected areas, the country is working to ensure that the magic and wonders of its jungles don’t disappear.

Home to the highest number of large mammals in Southeast Asia, including species like the Large-antlered Muntjac, the Indochinese Tiger and the Douc Langur – a type of monkey only found in Lao and northern Vietnam – the country also has possibly the largest Asian Elephant population in Indochina.... more info >

Even more impressively, many species new to science have been discovered in recent years, including mammals like the Annamite Striped Rabbit, one of the rarest species of rabbit in the world, and the Saola (a forest animal related to antelope and cows). The most recent revelation has been the Laotian Rock Rat, living in limestone areas, which is not closely related to common rats but actually belongs to an ancient family of rodents that until last year was thought to be extinct for 11 million years. Such discoveries place Lao PDR among one of the few countries in the world where several entirely new species of large mammals have been found in recent years.

“The unique biodiversity that is present in Lao PDR is extraordinary,” says Arlyne Johnson, Co-Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Lao PDR. “But the country’s enigmatic, difficult to spot and little known species are also highly endangered.”

In order to protect wildlife and the country’s biodiversity as a whole, 20 National Protected Areas, covering more than 14 percent of the country’s total territory, have been set up according to the “Lao Environment Monitor” (20mb pdf). The remoteness of these areas contributes to wildlife protection, but hunting and wildlife trade – in response to both Lao traditions and international market demand – pose a critical threat to the treasures found in Lao’s jungles.

To address this, there is a renewed interest in developing and implementing management and monitoring programs for protected areas across the country. One of the most successful programs so far is taking place in what experts say is the single largest protected area in mainland Southeast Asia.

Located in the central part of the country, the Nakai Nam Theun National Protected Area — also known as the Nam Theun 2 (NT2) Watershed — is one of the most important in the world for biological and cultural diversity. The area has some of the most diverse natural and protected forest, and is probably home to one of the two largest elephant populations (6.2mb pdf) in Lao PDR . Its management is also gaining attention as an example of robust wildlife monitoring and protection in the country.

The NT2 Watershed is managed by the Nam Theun 2 Watershed and Management Protection Authority (WMPA), a Lao PDR Government agency which commenced operations in late 2005. The agency is the first integrated conservation and development entity of this scale in the country, and the first to make wide-ranging efforts to enforce wildlife laws and set up a systematic biodiversity monitoring system. The agency counts on a budget of US$1 million a year provided by the Nam Theun 2 Power Company (NTPC) as part of the environmental mitigation programs under the Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project – a project supported by the World Bank.

Through its work, the WMPA has been building the capacity of its staff and of villagers living in the NT2 Watershed to conserve and protect the area’s rich biodiversity, including working to reduce the threats faced by wildlife. Some of the measures taken include:

stronger enforcement through patrols,

building awareness in communities of the impacts of hunting,

providing improved livelihoods to people thereby reducing pressure on the forests, and

demarcating protection zones that are to be managed solely for their biodiversity value.
The hope is that, as a result, wildlife species in the NT2 Watershed will have an increasingly better environment in which to thrive.

Recently, a joint team brought together World Bank and WCS staff to take a closer look at conservation and protection efforts in the NT2 Watershed. The group spent several days in the Lao jungle working with the WMPA wildlife monitoring teams to track species and assess the overall program.

“This was a stupendous opportunity for us to see firsthand how the teams are working, how the villagers have learnt to conduct the wildlife surveys and what information is being gathered,” said Anthony Whitten, a World Bank biodiversity specialist with extensive experience in wildlife protection in the region.

The WMPA, working with WCS, is conducting several methods of surveying, including using automatic cameras to record mammals at night and directly observing five target species along fixed routes during the day. The monitoring teams are usually made up of WMPA staff and villagers who live in the area, who are trained and hired by the agency.

“It’s very important for the WMPA to be doing this work because it provides information about the wildlife and it allows us to better manage the protected area,” explained Mr. Xaypanat, team leader of one of the wildlife monitoring groups, to the World Bank staff.

With the monitoring and patrolling teams set up, the WMPA is providing a good example of biodiversity conservation and protection in the country. The agency will continue implementing its monitoring, patrolling and awareness raising efforts so that its programs are sustainable and its valuable area is protected.


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World Environment Day is June 5. What are YOU doing to protect the world?

More information about biodiversity in Lao PDR can be found in the Lao Environment Monitor available in the World Bank’s website at www.worldbank.org/lao
source:

A rock rat discovered in Laos in 1998 has turned out to be a "fossil species" - the sole survivor of a family thought to have disappeared 11 million years ago.

The little rodent has the face of a mouse and the furry tail of a squirrel. Watch a video of the Laotian rock rat in action. It was discovered by biologists in markets in Laos 1998, where it was skewered, roasted and sold (see Strange new rodent discovered as Asian snack).

In 2005, researchers at the Natural History Museum in London, UK, suggested that the rodent marked the discovery of a whole new mammalian family and was a relative of guinea pigs, African mole rats and porcupines.

But six months later, other researchers disputed this, suggesting that the Laotian rock rat was not part of a new family but a very old one: the Diatomyidae, which was thought to have gone extinct 11 million years ago. However, that work was based solely on fossil data and so was controversial, according to Dorothee Huchon at Tel Aviv University in Israel.


Photo: The Gundi, of which there are just five known species - all in Africa - are the Laotian rock rat's closest living relative (Image: David Redfield/Uthai Treesucon/Florida State University)...more info and photos

Huchon set about resolving the issue by studying the family tree of the Laotian rock rat, Laonastes aenigmamus, using seven genes. The team compared the genes in the rock rat to those in all major taxonomic groups of living rodents in order to build up a picture of where it fit in the evolutionary tree. "The data we got is really, really strong," she says. "We can rule out that Laonastes is most closely related to guinea pigs."

Huchon says her study strongly supports the theory that Laonastes is the only known survivor of the Diatomyidae family. The team was also able to estimate that the Diatomyidae diverged from their closest living relatives, gundis (see picture, right), 44 million years ago.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0701289104)

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