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Writer's pictureChristophe Gargiulo

Cambodia & Nature: Discover the Kingdom's birds

Excerpts from the script of the television series ‘Endangered Species in Cambodia’ produced and directed by Christophe Gargiulo and Allan Michaud, and broadcast on CTN and CTNI, where you can discover the Indian Tantalus, the pelican, the vulture and the emblematic ibis.

Indian Tantals
Indian Tantals

Cambodia is a land of trees, lakes and rivers, an exceptional environment for all kinds of birds. Including resident and migratory birds, Cambodia is home to more than 500 different species.

Indian Tantalus

The Indian Tantalus is a large Asian wader in the stork family. It is found throughout South East Asia and India. In heavily flooded countries such as Cambodia, the Indian Tantalus is a resident bird. It feeds mainly on fish and frogs, but also on insects. It fishes by dipping its beak and wriggling it in the water in search of prey. The Indian tantalus generally lives in colonies of several dozen individuals. It is a threatened tropical species, but not endangered. Great efforts are being made to preserve the species. The largest number of colonies can be found around Tonle Sap Lake, mainly at Prek Toal.

Spotted-billed Pelican
Spotted-billed Pelican

Spotted-billed Pelican

The Spotted-billed Pelican is a species of bird whose morphology is characterised by a corpulent body, long, broad wings and a long beak with a voluminous expandable pouch. It is one of the heaviest birds capable of flight.

The pelican eats fish almost exclusively. It has a habit of fishing in groups, a very rare case of coordinated predation among birds. The spotted-billed pelican is an endangered species, mainly because of the difficulties in finding space for nesting and reproduction.

Greater adjutant
Greater adjutant

The Greater adjutant

The Greater adjutant is also a member of the stork family. It likes humid tropical areas like Cambodia. It nests and breeds in trees near lakes and rivers. A rather unattractive bird on the ground, the Greater adjutant gains a little elegance when it flies. It feeds mainly on frogs and insects, but also on small birds, reptiles and rodents. It will also eat carrion and rubbish.

There are two species in Cambodia, the hairy Greater adjutant and the argala Greater adjutant, which are difficult to distinguish when they are in flight. Due to habitat loss through agriculture, egg collection and fishing, the Greater adjutant is an endangered species. Its population is estimated at less than 1,500 individuals in Cambodia, and numerous protection and conservation measures have been undertaken.

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Royal vulture

Vultures

The vulture is a bird that inspires a certain repulsion but also a certain fascination, no doubt because its presence is associated with death, as the vulture feeds only on corpses. The vulture is a critically endangered Asian scavenger. This species is threatened by chronic kidney failure following the injection of Diclofenac, a chemical residue found in the flesh of abandoned domestic animal carcasses. This is a fairly solitary vulture, rarely seen in groups. It spends most of the day hovering, but is quick to land as soon as it spots a carcass.

This royal vulture (pictured above) was lucky enough to get hold of the body of a cow in a clearing. This vulture is not a dominant species. If other vultures find this carcass, it will not have the stature to dominate other competing species such as the long-billed vulture. So it often leaves them room to fall back on other small prey or the carcasses of small animals. This explains why this vulture, alone on its carcass, hurries to devour the carrion and often raises its head. It fears the arrival of competitors. It is attentive to the slightest noise. In fact, it is quite rare for a carcass to remain the property of a single vulture.

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The Long-billed Vulture was thought to be extinct until a colony was discovered at Steung Treng in Cambodia. It is also an endangered species. As long as it is alone with a king vulture and a crow on this carcass, the long-billed vulture keeps to itself. But if other vultures arrive, it's soon a fight.

Giant Ibis

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Giant Ibis

In this clearing in north-east Cambodia, a very rare bird is hunting. It is the Giant Ibis. Only around 200 individuals remain. Almost all the Giant Ibises live in Cambodia. The Giant Ibis is the largest bird in the ibis family. It can reach up to 1 metre in height and weigh almost five kilos.

Giant ibises used to be found in other Southeast Asian countries, such as Laos and Vietnam. But the species seems to have disappeared from these two countries, with only Cambodia still home to a few hundred individuals. Pairs and colonies of Giant Ibises live mainly near water, in ponds, lakes and rivers.

To feed, the Giant Ibis hunts reptiles, amphibians and crustaceans. The bird prefers to hunt in wetlands, but can also be seen foraging on drier surfaces, as in this clearing. The Giant Ibis builds its nest in trees, which it prefers to be large. It does not like human company and prefers to build its nest away from dwellings or villages. As flooding is seasonal in Cambodia, the Giant Ibis will move according to the availability of water. If a waterhole disappears at the end of the monsoon, the Ibis will look for another near a tree to build its nest. The reasons for the species' decline are not well known. Hunting, deforestation and land reclamation for agriculture seem to be responsible for its disappearance. But the young Ibises are also victims of predators such as the civet cat or the marten, two small, highly agile mammals that love to come and plunder and devour the eggs and chicks from Ibis nests. In Cambodia, the Giant Ibis is subject to fairly strict protection measures.

Cambodia's avifauna comprises exactly 553 species, only two of which have been introduced by man. 25 species are threatened, but the government and conservation NGOs are trying to pursue an active conservation policy, with some tangible results: the reappearance of vultures and Ibis species and the stabilisation of the populations of birds living in the Tonle Sap and its protected areas.

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