Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Tue, 28 Jul 1992 12:08:55 -0400
From:         Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
Subject:      NEWS/VN: Lost world in VN jungle
X-To:         FISHLM%SNYBUFVA@pucc.princeton.edu, scv@media.mit.edu,
              seasia-l@msu.BITNET, vietnam@cco.caltech.edu, vn-news@saigon.com

07/27

Lost World

Copyright, 1992. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By DAVID BRISCOE
 Associated Press Writer
   WASHINGTON (AP) -- A "lost world" teeming with possible new species of birds,
fish and an unknown dagger-horned mammal has survived a half-century of war and
expanding civilization in remote Vietnam, wildlife experts say.
   If it proves to be a new species, the U.S. and British scientists said the
creature locally referred to as a "forest goat" would be one of only a handful
of large mammals newly recorded in the last hundred years.
   A recent survey of the relatively untouched Vu Quang Nature Reserve by a team
from the Vietnamese government and the World Wildlife Fund documented
preliminary evidence of two previously unknown bird species, at least one new
fish, an unknown tortoise with a striking yellow shell and the goat-like mammal.
   "The horns are quite unlike those of other goats previously recorded," said
British scientist John MacKinnon, who led the World Wildlife Fund expedition in
May. He said it could be another kind of bovid, or hooved animal.
   "It's in a lost world that modern science had never before looked at," he
said in a telephone interview late last week from London.
   With most of Indochina heavily populated and so ravaged by wartime herbicides
and bombing, stepping into Vu Quang is "like opening a door into a lost and
neglected place," MacKinnon said. "Biologically, it's not like the rest of
Indochina."
   Officials of the Washington-based World Wildlife Fund said the relatively
untouched Vu Quang area spreads over 65 square miles along a steep stretch of
land near the Laotian border, a 10-hour overland trip from Hanoi.
   The team found three sets of upper skulls and horns of the previously unknown
mammal, MacKinnon said. While none was spotted alive, one of the skulls still
had maggots crawling in it, indicating it had died recently, he said.
   Skin samples from the hooved beast, which is a target of hunters in the area,
will be compared with those from cows, buffaloes, antelopes and goats to see
where it falls scientifically, MacKinnon said. Skulls are also being examined by
scientists in Vietnam, he said.
   The Vietnamese are trying to find a better specimen, he said, "but we don't
want to encourage actively shooting one because it might be a very rare
animal."'
   MacKinnon said he plans to return to the area soon and will set up cameras in
the forest. Elephants, tigers and leopards are among animals known to be in the
area, he said.
   In addition to evidence of a new mammal, MacKinnon said the scientists
spotted a small parrot-billed bird that they believe may not be documented, as
well as a sunbird that could be a new species and at least one new fish.
   A Vietnamese fish expert caught 62 different kinds of fish in the reserve, he
said.
   The yellow-shelled tortoise was taken to Hanoi intact, he said.
   Even if the species are not new, many have not been found in northern Vietnam
previously, MacKinnon said. The uniqueness of the area is underscored by the
fact that many species common to the region were curiously absent, he said.
   The reserve originally was set aside and protected as a cultural area because
it provided refuge for a local hero who had rebelled against the French,
MacKinnon said.
   "But this is the first time anyone has looked at it biologically," he said.
"And I'm sure we didn't do a total job."
   David Hulse of the wildlife fund, said Vietnam has a large system of
protected areas, including national parks and forest reserves. The local
government overseeing Vu Quang and the national Ministry of Forestry have agreed
to ban logging in the area and expand the nature reserve, he said.
   But the ministry faces difficulties typical of developing countries trying to
protect natural habitats: a lack of funds and an underpaid, undertrained staff,
Hulse said. The fund is working with Vietnamese officials to improve their
system of protected areas, he said.
   The wildlife group, which has more than 2,000 projects in 140 countries, also
is urging Laos to establish a reserve in the adjacent area located in Khammonn
province, Hulse said.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU