Tuesday April 16, 2024
EcoWatch —
In one of the most detailed surveys ever undertaken, hundreds of animal species — from birds to primates to web-footed wildcats — have been discovered in a Cambodian mangrove forest.
Team leader Stefanie Rog — a conservation biologist and senior program manager with Fauna & Flora International, which funded the study — recorded an astounding variety of species at the Peam Krasop sanctuary and adjacent Koh Kapid Ramsar wildlife reserve in Cambodia. Some of the animals they encountered included the critically endangered Sunda pangolin; endangered long-tailed macaques, large-spotted civet and hairy-nosed otters; the vulnerable fishing cat; and 74 fish species, a press release from Fauna & Flora said.
“We found 700 different species in these mangrove forests but we suspect we have not even scratched the surface,” Rog said, as The Guardian reported. “If we could look at the area in even greater depth we would find 10 times more, I am sure.”
Mangrove forests are found in tropical and subtropical coastal areas. They are specially adapted to flourish in both salt and brackish water, but 40 percent of them have been decimated in the past few decades due to land use changes such as agriculture and development.