The Wild Things
Take Action
Travel
Adopt a Mekong Dolphin
Support WWF
|
 |
Mekong
Off the Beaten Path; My Cambodia Travel Log
Dekila is the WWF US leader for the Greater Mekong Program. The Greater Mekong Program consists of three Global 200 ecoregions; the Mekong river, the Lower Mekong Dry Forests and the Greater Annamites and covers six countries; China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. This ecoregion complex is one of WWF US's priorities due to the incredible endemic biodiversity found there; whether it is the Mekong Giant Catfish, the largest freshwater fish in the world, or the Douc Langur, possibly the most charismatic primate in the world.
Dekila is from Sikkim, a tiny northeastern state in India the size of Rhode Island which is squished between Nepal and Bhutan. Like every other person from the Himalayas, she is convinced that her homeland is the original Shangrila. Her family is Bhutia, of Tibetan origin and she speaks Sikkimese, the local language, as well as Tibetan, Hindi and Nepali fluently. She worked in the WWF Eastern Himalayas Program for five years prior to working on the Greater Mekong. Her areas of expertise include strategic conservation planning, community based conservation and sustainable livelihoods. Among her most prized skills is the ability to eat anything remotely edible.
Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 14 and 15 | Last Day
Day Seven: Hog DeerToday, Matt Lewis, also from the WWF-US Program and I meet up with Chea Nareth who works in the WWF Cambodia Species Team, to go in search of hog deer!
First off, let me just say that no one gets very excited about hog deer. They aren't particularly beautiful, large or endangered. The name certainly doesn't help. In fact, the name comes from their habit of rooting underneath bushes when startled like a wild pig rather than leaping around gracefully like most deer. But, we like them! Hog deer was thought to have gone extinct in Southeast Asia until a year ago, when our project staff in this area discovered a small population. This is a good indicator that important species are making a come-back in areas that are protected, proving that securing habitats can reverse declining populations of endangered species.
After a hair-raising canoe ride, we reach ground and set out on foot. Immediately, I am wet to my knees. In less than five minutes, my hiking boots are soaked inside and out, and very soon, a combination of mud, manure and slush are mixing up in there. The terrain is incredibly diverse. We go between marshes, bogs, grasslands and dry high ground continuously. There are points where the rushes are so tall that my 5 feet 2 frame is totally swallowed and I’m convinced that I'll never see the rest of the group again.
Matt is in his element. He claims that his Cherokee genes make him predisposed to tracking and I get to see this in action now. To the delight of our field staff, he is painstakingly following hog deer sign. This is where the hog deer stepped into the dust; this is where it heard something and got scared; this is where it slid on its knees in the ground; this is the bush it hid under; this is where it pooped and this is where the other hog deer stepped into the mud; and, so on. It is captivating for about exactly 35 seconds, but I don't let on. Listen, I trained as a socio-economist for a reason!We also go from farm to farm, following a different type of tracking system; rice crops that have been neatly sheared off to about 10 inches from the ground. It is as though someone came with a mowing machine, picked a square, and precisely worked their way across. Nareth and his staff are experimenting with tape from music cassettes that can be strung around paddy fields and due to the glitter, can safely scare away the hog deer. It is working in most of the plots we visit, so the team now plans to expand this method to other farms as well.
Finally resigned that we wont see any hog deer today (despite Matt's excellent tracking skills), we decide to head back.
Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 14 and 15 | Last Day
Click the globe to explore WWF's work
