Cambodia, land of eight newly discovered living species

The international NGO WWF announced in its report published on Wednesday, December 12th, the discovery of 157 new species of flora and fauna in 2017 in the Greater Mekong region, which includes Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar. Of these, the Khmer kingdom is home to eight new animal and plant species.

The Greater Mekong region—spanning China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam—is a biodiversity treasure trove. Its rich wildlife includes Asian elephants, tigers, leopards, several pangolin species, ibises, freshwater dolphins in Kratie, and many more. The Mekong River alone harbors three times more fish species than the Amazon River. A total of 2.6 million tons of fish are caught here annually, accounting for 25% of the world’s freshwater catch.

Each year, scientists participate in the identification and classification of new species in the Greater Mekong area. Some are uncovered after meticulous fieldwork—sometimes months of effort on-site—and years of laboratory verification.

A unique bamboo!

The report confirms that eight new animal and plant species were discovered in Cambodia. These include three new species of fish*, a previously unknown frog species, Rhacophorus rhodopus, and four plant species**. Among them is Schizostachyum cambodianum (S. cambodianum), a completely new species of bamboo, unique in its kind.

“Bamboos are among the most difficult plants to study because many species do not regularly produce the flowers needed for proper identification,” explains Dr. Khoon Meng Wong, the Singaporean researcher who discovered this specimen. According to him, the S. cambodianum is particularly notable for having a lobe—a shallow, rounded division of the leaf—singular and entirely unique in Southeast Asia.

(Schizostachyum cambodianum ©WWF)

Between 2015 and 2017, scientists were able to identify S. cambodianum specimens—sporadically—in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountain range. The challenge, however, lies in the fact that most of these bamboos have developed along national roads, or in scattered areas that are particularly vulnerable to deforestation. Conservation efforts are now underway to safeguard this new plant species.

(S. cambodianum in the Cardamoms ©WWF)

* Fish species: Acantopsis rungthipae, Acantopsis dinema, Acantopsis ioa

** Plant species: Schizostachyum cambodianum, Impatiens bokorensis, Tarenna pilosa var. parvifolia, Wikstroemia bokorensis

Thibault Bourru