Endangered Ibis rebounding

Tuesday, 14 September 2010
By Brooke Lewis
Phnom Penh Post

Photo by: Hugh Wright/University of East Anglia
A White-shouldered Ibis searches for a snack.

The largest number of White-shouldered Ibis ever recorded in the world, a total of 429 of the birds previously estimated to number only few hundred globally, have been counted in Cambodia by a coalition of conservation groups and university researchers.

The number dwarfs an estimate in the 2010 Red List of Threatened Species published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) earlier this year that only 330 of the birds remained worldwide.

The findings, released in a report by conservation NGO Birdlife International in Indochina, has buoyed the spirits of conservationists working in Cambodia to protect and restore the critically endangered species by creating wildlife sanctuaries across the country.

“The new findings indicate that Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary, Ratanakiri province, is particularly valuable as over 170 birds were counted here,” the report states.

A survey headed by the University of East Anglia and assisted by six conservation groups simultaneously counted the species in 37 roost sites across the Kingdom in August, according to the report...read the full story in tomorrow’s Phnom Penh Post or the see the updated story online from 3PM UTC/GMT +7 hours.