Help Care for Rescued Animals in Cambodia

In the third quarter of 2017, 427 animals arrived at Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center (PTWRC) for care and rehabilitation. Additionally, 18 animals were either born or hatched at the center and 301 animals were released from PTWRC into their natural habitat. There have been no serious problems at PTWRC as of late and operations have been running smoothly. 

The Wildlife Rehabilitation Station continues to be a popular destination for tourists to stay, as well as being a haven for rescued animals to be released back into a protected forest. Three Critically Endangered pangolins were released in the past three months. These were “hard released,” meaning they did not receive a period of acclimatization nor supplementary food following release. We have found that pangolins do not require this and survive in a new environment without the need of support. The wild troupes of macaques we released have been less apparent lately. They are still around, but seem to be spending less time at WRS. We occasionally see one or two of the slow lorises we have released and we know our old friends the binturongs are still around. The female muntjac we released is now consorting with a wild male and the pair of mynah birds and single red breasted parakeet, with a fixation for humans, are always around camp and are still enjoying our company. 

Camera traps have been set around the forest to document the wild animals that inhabit the forest. We are seeing photos of sun bear, pigtailed macaque, dhole and clouded leopard to add to the more common species such as porcupine, leopard cat, civet, wild pig, mouse deer, sambar and muntjac we regularly photograph. A flock of five or six green peafowl is often seen in the grassland close to the bear enclosure and we are always surrounded by a great variety of different wild birds. Rangers from our police patrol station in Stung Proat occasionally visit the forest around WRS to ensure the area is safe and the Community AntiPoaching Units (CAPU) we implemented from Chi Phat regularly patrol the area. The teams assure me that there are no longer snares within a 5km radius of our release station, which is likely an exaggeration but is encouraging nonetheless. 

Thank you for supporting our Care for Rescued Wildlife program and helping us release countless animals back into the wild!