Scientists Identify 380 More Species in Mekong Region
Radio Free Asia
An aggressive color-changing lizard, a venomous snake named after a goddess in Chinese mythology and a camouflaging green frog found only in the forested limestone mountains of northeastern Vietnam were among the hundreds of plant and animal species discovered in the Mekong River region in the past two years, researchers announced in May 2023.
Hundreds of scientists from across the globe discovered 175 species in 2021 and 205 in 2022 in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reported.
“These remarkable species may be new to science, but they have survived and evolved in the Greater Mekong region for millions of years, reminding us humans that they were there a very long time before our species moved into this region,” said K. Yoganand, WWF-Greater Mekong regional wildlife lead. “We have an obligation to do everything to stop their extinction and protect their habitats and help their recovery.”
The newly declared species include a thick-thumbed, mouse-eared bat, whose specimen sat in a Hungarian museum for 20 years. Another is a plant collected in the 1930s but only recently confirmed to be a novel species by a new team of researchers.
Several new species remain at risk due to human activities. A Cambodian casino, dam and residential development contribute to the destruction of an evergreen shrub, while agricultural encroachment, logging and collection for medicinal purposes threaten a Thai crocodile newt in Vietnam.
In total, scientists discovered 290 plants, 19 fish, 24 amphibians, 46 reptiles and one mammal in the past two years, bringing the number of discoveries in the Mekong region to 3,389 since 1997, when WWF started collecting new species data.
According to a 2011 study, scientists have identified only 1.6 million of the planet’s estimated 8.7 million species, meaning that more than 80% of species remain undiscovered.
The wildlife conservation group also called on governments to increase protection for rare creatures and their habitats. The new species are “under intense pressure from deforestation, habitat degradation, road development, loss of streams and rivers, pollution, diseases spread by human activities, competition from invasive species, and the devastating impacts of illegal wildlife trade,” the WWF reported. “Sadly, many species go extinct before they are even discovered.”
A senior Vietnamese scientist said discoveries of new species help fill gaps in knowledge about the natural world.
“They also fill us, the researchers, with wonder and trepidation — wonder that there are still countless species yet to be found, and trepidation that there isn’t enough time to find, understand and conserve them,” said Truong Q. Nguyen, vice director at the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology.
“The Greater Mekong region is recognized as a biodiversity hotspot — also known as the Indo-Burma hotspot,” Nguyen said in the report’s foreword.
The region contains iconic and endangered species, including the tiger, the Asian elephant, the Sunda pangolin and the giant freshwater stingray. However, its biodiversity faces “tremendous pressures from economic development and human population growth, which drive deforestation, pollution and overexploitation of natural resources, compounded by the effects of climate change,” Nguyen said.
