Search for the kouprey: trail runs cold for Cambodia’s national
animal
A recent study by wildlife researcher Lic Vuthy has reiterated dire assumptions about the existence of Cambodia's fabled
national animal - the kouprey.
In The Existence of the Kouprey in Cambodia, published in the Forestry
Administration's annual report, Vuthy analyzed more than six decades of reports
and field studies to discern the status of the semi-mythical forest ox once described
as "Southeast Asia's version of the Loch Ness monster."
His findings - although hardly surprising - are enormously unfortunate. Vuthy
concluded that the last proven sighting of a kouprey was in 1983, and that the
species completely vanished some time during the late 1980s.
The report echoes the opinions of international wildlife experts who have been
skeptical about the animal's survival for many years.
"It is highly likely and probable that kouprey are biologically extinct in the wild,"
said Hunter Weiler, adviser to the Department of Forestry and Wildlife. "The best
case scenario is that there is a handful of individuals scattered around, dying one by
one. I think the kouprey is probably gone, but you can't confirm a negative."
But Vuthy's grim report, which represents the least positive government-sponsored
assessment to date, has been disputed within the Forestry Administration and by a
government that has been reluctant to tackle an indelicate question: what does a
country do if its national animal becomes extinct?
"Lic Vuthy's report does not have enough information," Forestry official Chheang
Dany told the Post. "I believe the kouprey is still alive. In fact, we have just sent a
team of 30 experts to Rattanakkiri to investigate. They will complete their study by
August."
"Most people in the government don't want to believe that the kouprey is gone. It's
an emotional and political decision, not one based on fact," Weiler said. "It's kind of
like the abominable snowman and a lot of other things - there is a lot faith and
ingrained belief behind it but no cold, hard evidence."
Mystery and mishap nothing new
Controversy, mystery and mishap are nothing new for the elusive kouprey. Since it
was identified by Western science in 1937, the species' tragicomic history has
included heavily armed expeditions, a billion-dollar genetic jackpot - and heartpounding
peril.
The search for the stealthy mammal has lured journalists, scientists, big game
hunters and adventurers. Over the years, the infrequent forays into the kouprey's
war-torn region have been met with disease, land mines, gunplay and, for the most
part, frustration.
In Quest for the Kouprey, a definitive 1995 article on the subject, author Steve
Hendrix wrote "the most painful of all [has been] the excruciating near-successes of
fresh tracks, second-hand reports and botched captures. To show for it all, science
has amassed a kouprey collection amounting to little more than a couple hundred
pounds of bones and a few feet of grainy film footage."
"It's a bit like looking for the Yeti or Bigfoot, this animal," British biologist James
MacKinnon said after his own efforts to locate a kouprey. "First, it was just extremely rare and then it was shrouded in mystery through 30 years of warfare. It's become sort of a symbol of
conservation in Indochina."
The most successful kouprey specialist was the late Dr Charles H Wharton, a US conservationist better known for his book
Natural Environments of Georgia. A World Wildlife Federation report claims "The best, most complete field data on the
kouprey was obtained by Charles Wharton in field work in the 1950s." But Wharton's 2003 obituary in the Atlanta-Journal
Constitution made no mention of his pivotal role in one of Cambodia's greatest mysteries.
In 1951 Wharton led a 90-man group - including 60 government soldiers-on a two-month excursion in the Choam Ksan
and Koh Ke areas of Preah Vihear and Siem Reap provinces. He caught on film six separate groups of kouprey -the only
existing footage. Wharton estimated that there were roughly 400 to 500 head of kouprey west of the Mekong, 200 to 300
in Lomphat wildlife sanctuary and 50 in the Samrong district of Kratie province. According to wildlife experts almost
everything known about kouprey behavior stems from Wharton's visits and the resulting 1957 film The Forest Cattle
Survey Expedition to Southeast Asia - a tour de force of nature documentaries. According to Vuthy's report, after
accepting the film from Wharton in 1964, Prince Norodom Sihanouk "designated the kouprey as Cambodia's National
Animal and declared Kulen Prum Tep, Lomphat and Phnom Prich as wildlife sanctuaries for kouprey conservation."
The same year, Wharton launched an unlucky mission to capture live kouprey for captive breeding. He was able to
capture five, but lost them all: two died and three escaped. "It's amazing the bad luck, the problems that have
surrounded the kouprey," Wharton said in an interview with International Wildlife magazine. "It's almost like the thing has
some sort of an ancient spell over it that man is not to learn about or capture this animal. Turmoil between the 1960s and
1980s halted kouprey expeditions. In 1982, a group was spotted near the Thai border, but according to Vuthy the search
effort was called off after a land mine critically injured the group's guide.
The most eccentric hunt
The most eccentric - and heavily armed - hunt for the animal came in 1994. Former Post reporter Nate Thayer led a
motley band of 26 mercenaries, armed soldiers and journalists - including Ker Munthit of AP, Michael Hayes of the Post
and British photographer Tim Page - into Cambodia's remote northeast. In a subsequent Post article Thayer wrote "After
compiling a team of expert jungle trackers, scientists, security troops, elephant mahouts and one of the most motley and
ridiculous looking groups of armed journalists in recent memory, we marched cluelessly into Khmer Rouge-controlled
jungles along the old Ho Chi Minh trail."
The two-week, 150 km field survey - called the Cambodian Kourpey Research Project - made no sightings of kouprey but
estimated optimistically that evidence suggested a herd of fewer than a dozen still existed in a small region of Mondulkiri.
"There were several early casualties from heat prostration and other manifestations of badly-out-of-shape bodies addled
by long histories of drug and alcohol abuse," wrote Thayer, who funded the $30,000 expedition.
The last kouprey survey was led by Weiler in January 1999, along the Sre Pok river. Again the trip yielded no evidence of
kouprey but did result in a film, Search for the Kouprey. "To my knowledge, that was the last kouprey-specific
expedition," Weiler said. "I personally think, and many NGOs agree, Kouprey searches are a waste of time and money.
Any areas it was in the past or might still be have been surveyed within the last decade and are looked over almost
monthly."
Key dates in the hunt for an elusive beast
1937: The kouprey (Bos sauveli) species is "discovered" by the director of Vincennes Zoo in Paris after a calf
captured in Preah Vihear province grows into an animal unknown to Western science. It is the last large mammal on
earth to be given a new classification until 1992. The only kouprey studied in captivity, it starves to death during the
World War II German occupation of France.
1940: Harvard University published a report that defines the kouprey as genetically separate from all other known
mammals and belonging to its own genus. The report claims that the kouprey is a Pleistocene ancestor of domestic
cattle.
1951: US biologist Dr Charles H Wharton leads a 90-man expedition into Cambodia and studies a dozen different
groups of kouprey on film. The brief observations form the basis of modern knowledge about kouprey behaviour.
Wharton estimates 500 kouprey exist in the wild.
1964: Head of State Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who kept a kouprey in the Royal Gardens as a child, declares the
kouprey Cambodia's national animal, and designates sanctuaries in Preah Vihear, Ratanakkiri, and Mondulkiri. Also in
1964, Wharton leads a disastrous mission to capture kouprey for captive breeding; his crew captures five and then
loses them all - two die and three escape.
extremely rare and then it was shrouded in mystery through 30 years of warfare. It's become sort of a symbol of
conservation in Indochina."
The most successful kouprey specialist was the late Dr Charles H Wharton, a US conservationist better known for his book
Natural Environments of Georgia. A World Wildlife Federation report claims "The best, most complete field data on the
kouprey was obtained by Charles Wharton in field work in the 1950s." But Wharton's 2003 obituary in the Atlanta-Journal
Constitution made no mention of his pivotal role in one of Cambodia's greatest mysteries.
In 1951 Wharton led a 90-man group - including 60 government soldiers-on a two-month excursion in the Choam Ksan
and Koh Ke areas of Preah Vihear and Siem Reap provinces. He caught on film six separate groups of kouprey -the only
existing footage. Wharton estimated that there were roughly 400 to 500 head of kouprey west of the Mekong, 200 to 300
in Lomphat wildlife sanctuary and 50 in the Samrong district of Kratie province. According to wildlife experts almost
everything known about kouprey behavior stems from Wharton's visits and the resulting 1957 film The Forest Cattle
Survey Expedition to Southeast Asia - a tour de force of nature documentaries. According to Vuthy's report, after
accepting the film from Wharton in 1964, Prince Norodom Sihanouk "designated the kouprey as Cambodia's National
Animal and declared Kulen Prum Tep, Lomphat and Phnom Prich as wildlife sanctuaries for kouprey conservation."
The same year, Wharton launched an unlucky mission to capture live kouprey for captive breeding. He was able to
capture five, but lost them all: two died and three escaped. "It's amazing the bad luck, the problems that have
surrounded the kouprey," Wharton said in an interview with International Wildlife magazine. "It's almost like the thing has
some sort of an ancient spell over it that man is not to learn about or capture this animal. Turmoil between the 1960s and
1980s halted kouprey expeditions. In 1982, a group was spotted near the Thai border, but according to Vuthy the search
effort was called off after a land mine critically injured the group's guide.
The most eccentric hunt
The most eccentric - and heavily armed - hunt for the animal came in 1994. Former Post reporter Nate Thayer led a
motley band of 26 mercenaries, armed soldiers and journalists - including Ker Munthit of AP, Michael Hayes of the Post
and British photographer Tim Page - into Cambodia's remote northeast. In a subsequent Post article Thayer wrote "After
compiling a team of expert jungle trackers, scientists, security troops, elephant mahouts and one of the most motley and
ridiculous looking groups of armed journalists in recent memory, we marched cluelessly into Khmer Rouge-controlled
jungles along the old Ho Chi Minh trail."
The two-week, 150 km field survey - called the Cambodian Kourpey Research Project - made no sightings of kouprey but
estimated optimistically that evidence suggested a herd of fewer than a dozen still existed in a small region of Mondulkiri.
"There were several early casualties from heat prostration and other manifestations of badly-out-of-shape bodies addled
by long histories of drug and alcohol abuse," wrote Thayer, who funded the $30,000 expedition.
The last kouprey survey was led by Weiler in January 1999, along the Sre Pok river. Again the trip yielded no evidence of
kouprey but did result in a film, Search for the Kouprey. "To my knowledge, that was the last kouprey-specific
expedition," Weiler said. "I personally think, and many NGOs agree, Kouprey searches are a waste of time and money.
Any areas it was in the past or might still be have been surveyed within the last decade and are looked over almost
monthly."
1965-1967: World Wildlife Fund (France) former president Pierre Pfeffer makes five extensive expeditions to
Indochina, during which he observes several herds of around 15 kouprey and obtains the only still photograph of the
animal on record. These are the last recorded kouprey sightings by a scientist.
1975-1979: A wild-meat supplier tells a government researcher that, during the war, he killed six kouprey from a
population of 30 in Preah Vihear.
1982: A small herd of kouprey is spotted along Cambodia's border in Thailand. A massive search is forced to turn
back when a tripped landmine injures the guide and the follow-up government expedition concludes the kouprey
returned to Cambodia.
1988: An International Workshop on the Kouprey Conservation Program is held in Hanoi during January, attended by
researchers and donors from around the world. Workshop guesstimates suggest 27 kouprey remain in Vietnam, 40 to
100 in Laos, and fewer than 200 in Cambodia. An action plan, prepared and published by two major wildlife
conservation groups, calls for surveys in all three countries.
1989-90: Surveys take place in Daklak Province and in southern Laos, with negative results. University of Hanoi
biologist Ha Dinh Duc conducts a search along Cambodia's border with Vietnam but the work is cut short when the
group comes under fire from Vietnam exiles. Duc is shot from the back of an elephant but survives with wounds to
the face and chest.
1994: Journalist Nate Thayer leads the first full-scale ground hunt for kouprey in eastern Cambodia, which is
unsuccessful. At the same time, the Cambodia Wildlife protection office and several NGOs sponsor an aerial survey for
kouprey in eastern Cambodia. A total of 5,238 sq km is surveyed, involving 34.7 hours flying, but no success.
1995: Noel Vietmeyer, a National Academy of Science specialist in finding economic value in tropical fauna, tells
International Wildlife Magazine " [The kouprey] is the holy grail. It's probably the most genetically valuable species on
earth... Here's an animal with thousands of years of survivability in the harshest habitats built into it, one that could
improve the lot of half of the domestic cattle on earth, maybe all of them..."
1999: Wildlife Protection Office international adviser and kouprey enthusiast Hunter Weiler conducts an official
expedition to Eastern Mondulkiri with the Wildlife Protection Office. Documented on film, it results in a movie, Search
for the Kouprey, but no kouprey sightings are recorded. He prepares a paper on the status of wild cattle in Cambodia,
which states, "The author reluctantly concurs with the local officials and hunters - the kouprey is finished."
2000-2006: Extensive general wildlife surveys involving camera trapping are carried out in the kouprey's former
range. The surveys, conducted by the Wildlife Protection Office and Ministry of Environment, find no kouprey.
2001: Deputy Director of the Wildlife Protection Office Men Soriyun publishes Status and Distribution of Wild Cattle in
Cambodia in Tiger Paper. Regarding kouprey, he concludes "it is highly unlikely that any breeding population still
occurs and the species should be considered effectively extinct in the wild."
2004: The Cambodian government officially redesignates the kouprey the National Animal.
2005: A full-size statue of a kouprey is placed near Wat Phnom. Former forestry administration researcher Lic Vuthy
releases an exhaustive review of all available kouprey reports, including interviews with ex-hunters, and concludes
that the last credible first-hand reports of kouprey sightings in Cambodia occurred in the 1980s. All subsequent
reports have been second and third-hand anecdotes.
2006: Hunter Weiler tells the Post further grants of funds for kouprey-specific surveys "open the door for wasting
scarce conservation money on all sorts of half-baked safaris to go out anywhere in former kouprey range... with little
realistic possibility of finding anything."
www.birdlifeindochina.org/report_pdfs/babbler_17.pdf
