Help Care for Rescued Animals in Cambodia

Following months of heavy rains, the pleasant cooler weather that precedes dry season here in Cambodia finally seems to be upon us and the cycle of life, from birth to release, continues for the animals your donations support at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre.

Our Main Lake is now full to the brim and the lesser whistling ducks released earlier in the year are enjoying the bonanza. The Eld’s deer born at the Centre through our Endangered species captive breeding program have produced several wild-born offspring since their release. The deer are not so happy as the birds are with the rise in water level because it means they cannot graze on the sweet grass they have access to as the Lake dries up, but this will happen again soon enough.

In October, we gave four Endangered mainland serow their freedom in the Phnom Tamao Protected Forest surrounding the Centre. We continue to put down supplementary food for them and still see them all quite regularly.

The four orphaned baby douc langurs we told you about in the previous report are all well and have made the transition into a large enclosure built for them in the elephant section. Elephant keepers, Vok and Sol, who did such a great job with their round-the-clock bottle feeds in the early days continue to look after them and the babies no longer need to come indoors at night-time.

Finally, we celebrated another happy event early in December when our female gaur, born at the Centre in 2016, gave birth to her first calf. The father is a young male the Nursery keepers hand raised following his rescue as a tiny calf in 2017. He had been caught in a snare and it was only the keepers’ dedicated care that ensured his survival. The new arrival at the end of this year was a pleasant surprise as the bull is much younger than the female and we did not expect babies quite so soon. We are not allowing the father access to his young son “just in case”. The young calf is doing very well.

Thank you for your donations – they have been especially critical this year because COVID-19 travel bans have virtually eliminated income from our Behind The Scenes tours of the Centre, which previously paid a significant portion of the monthly animal food bill and keepers’ salaries. Without your support, it would be considerably more difficult to feed and care for our lifelong residents that unfortunately can never be safely released, all the newly rescued wildlife that arrives each month, and the baby animals born at the Centre.

Happy holidays and best wishes for a New Year as refreshing as the new lease on life you help to give Cambodia’s rescued wildlife.