Help Care for Rescued Animals in Cambodia

Thank you for supporting our project and ensuring animals rescued from the illegal wildlife trade are given a second chance at life! We would like to share a special update from Wildlife Programs Director, Nick Marx who manages our work at Phnom Tamao Rescue Center (PTWRC) in Cambodia.

Work never stops at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre (PTWRC). With around 1,200 animals to care for and new ones arriving on a daily basis we need to keep our eye on the ball. The health of our elephant, Lucky, at last seems to be improving following her brush with death at the beginning of the year. As expected our dear friend Dara, the male tiger who has been sick for so long finally died and Chhouk, our male elephant with a damaged front leg received a new prosthesis. We have managed to keep pretty much up to date with the necessary cage construction and we are continuing with our efforts to build small conservation education facilities around the Centre for the different species of wildlife native to Cambodia with a wild cat and dog exhibit beside the leopard enclosure.

Progress has been steady during the past three months at Phnom Tamao. There have been no unforeseen dramas, which is fortunate as our rehabilitation and release work in different parts of the country has kept us busy. There were the usual stream of arrivals – either confiscations or births – and departures that we always experience. A total of 469 animals were brought to PTWRC during the past three months. These included 81 pythons, 12 macaques, 7 slow loris, 1 black bear, 2 leopard cat kittens and 197 birds including 1 greater adjutant stork, 3 lesser adjutants, 1 spot billed pelican, 1 grey headed fish eagle and a crested serpent eagle.

There were also seven pheasants, later identified as two female Siamese firebacks and five Edward’s pheasants that arrived. The firebacks are native to Cambodia and I would like to implement a breeding program for this beautiful species in order that we can release them in some of the areas we are working. We only have male firebacks at PTWRC and genetic tests on the females to confirm their origins will be necessary first. The Edward’s pheasant comes from Vietnam and is extinct in the wild, now only surviving in one or two captive breeding facilities. I gave feathers to a colleague working with Birdlife International and these have now been sent to a specialist in Germany to identify whether the bloodlines of our birds are valuable to the breeding program. I have already built a large enclosure for these nervous birds and results from tests will decide what we finally do with them.

Seventeen babies were born including two pileated gibbons, one brush-tailed porcupine and three lion cubs. Other births during the quarter were either muntjac deer or wild pigs. Jungle fowl chicks and black-crowned night herons hatched in our aviaries. We released 255 animals. These were mostly pythons, monitor lizards, macaques or birds that had recovered from their ordeal and were strong enough to have their freedom. We released 11 muntjac, which we had previously removed from the grounds of the French Embassy, into the Phnom Tamao Protected Forest. We still see them around as they are quite familiar with people and they are well.

Release in some cases is a euphemism for escape and this is not the problem for us that it would for a western zoo. Our animals are indigenous and can survive in the forest. We put supplementary food down in their old enclosure for them for as long as it is needed and leave the door open in case the animals feel like being recaptured! Animals that were “released” in this manner include wild boar, common palm civets, a leopard cat and three jackals.

The Cambodian School of Prosthetics and Orthotics (CSPO) visited PTWRC to take a fitting of Chhouk’s damaged leg in order that they could make a new prosthesis for our young bull elephant. Chhouk is a growing lad and elephants are heavy on foot wear! They brought us the new shoe one month later. It was a perfect fit! I never miss an opportunity to extol the virtues of the kind people who work for this excellent organization that operates under the umbrella of the Cambodia Trust, without whom Chhouk would be in a sorry state by now. When I asked for assistance in 2009 other similar organizations wished us luck but refused to help. CSPO made no promises, but said they would give it a shot. They now say they see Chhouk as just another one of their patients that they must continue to care for…and the results have been incredible!

I would like to thank all the supporters that have helped us care for these special aniimals. No animal is ever turned away, and without the Centre most of them would not have survived.

Happy Holidays from all of us at Wildlife Alliance! We hope you will continue to think of us during this giving season, as well as share our work with friends and on social media!