ENVIRONMENT
Many suspects in death of wild cattle
Pongphon Sarnsamak
The Nation
Kui Buri, Prachuap Khiri Khan



Angry officials, poison, predators all cited as causing gaur deaths

BANGKOK: -- IT IS SUSPECTED that the deaths of 18 rare gaurs in Prachuap Khiri Khan's Kui Buri National Park could have been the result of a conflict over the removal of wildlife protection officers and plans to merge two national parks as a Natural World Heritage Site, according to officials.

Phongphan Wichiansamut, chief officer of Prachuap Khiri Khan's Kui Buri district, said he suspected the main motivation behind the mysterious deaths of the 18 gaurs - the world's largest wild cows - was conflict over the removal of Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) protection officers.

There was also ill-feeling over the proposed merging of two national parks - Kui Buri and Kaeng Kra Chan - which are expected to be designated as a Natural World Heritage Site and developed as a destination for tourists.

"After the deaths of the 18 gaurs was reported through the media, the department removed the former chief of Kui Buri National Park and sent in a new official to replace him to manage the national park," he told The Nation.

"As a local man, I think the deaths of the gaurs resulted from the conflict over the designation and removal of park officials," he added.



Merging of parks questioned

Kitti Sainamkhiew, a member of Kuiburi Conservation Group, said the merging of the two national parks would affect the management of Kui Buri National Park.

He too questioned the department's action in replacing the former chief of the national park.

He said villagers in local areas were now protesting against the new appointee who might come from Kaeng Kra Chan National Park to replace the former chief.

The DNP's deputy director, Theerapat Prayurasiddhi, has insisted disagreement over the removal of DNP officials had nothing to do with the fate of the rare gaurs in Kui Buri National Park.

Officials were moved based on their performance, he said.

Theerapat also denied reports that the merging of the two national parks was behind the suspicious deaths of the gaurs.

"It is just a proposal. The department has no plans to merge these two national parks," he said.

The department has set up a fact-finding committee to find answers to why the gaurs died.

The result is expected by the end of this month.

Theerapat said he saw three possible reasons behind the cause of death: disease, poisoning, and hunting by tigers and wild dogs.

A preliminary check had found at least two of the 18 dead gaurs |were killed by a tiger or wild dogs, he said.

Kamol Oon-Jai, chief of Kui Buri forest reserve conservation and recovery project, said he thought personally the animals' deaths might have resulted from disease rather than poisoning or conflict among officials.

"I have worked here for more than 15 years and I don't think someone would kill the gaurs because |he wanted an official position," he said.

Meanwhile, Kitti said local villagers had collected Bt100,000 as a reward for finding the people responsible for the death of the gaurs.

-- The Nation 2014-01-09

Preposterous Thai news article. Shocking that the newspaper would settle for the trip and horse manure fed to them as cited in the story.

How can it be possible that "Kitti said local villagers had collected Bt100,000 as a reward for finding the people responsible for the death of the gaurs", when nobody appears to have been implicated thus far in the deaths? Typical sloppy reporting, contradictions and confusion generated in The Nation's article, leading one to believe that there is far more to this story than meets the eye and a proper investigation by some decent journalists is required to get to the bottom of it. Probably not for the faint-hearted, however, knowing the conflicts of interest inherent in Thai National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries that can lead decent and honest officials to suicide.

How can it be possible that "Kitti said local villagers had collected Bt100,000 as a reward for finding the people responsible for the death of the gaurs", when nobody appears to have been implicated thus far in the deaths? Typical sloppy reporting, contradictions and confusion generated in The Nation's article, leading one to believe that there is far more to this story than meets the eye and a proper investigation by some decent journalists is required to get to the bottom of it. Probably not for the faint-hearted, however, knowing the conflicts of interest inherent in Thai National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries that can lead decent and honest officials to suicide.

Is it possible that the "reward" was a collusion between a group of people whereby one

party point at the culprits and second party willing to be the scape goat for part of the

Reward? I for one, wouldn't put it pass any Thai person when there is an easy money

to be had...

Chaiyo!

Jasis those skulls are enormous, I have never heard of this Gaur species, they must be huuuuge

Huge!

Jasis those skulls are enormous, I have never heard of this Gaur species, they must be huuuuge

There might be a lot you don't know about Thai nature, and 99% of the world has no idea what you are talking about if you mention Gaur, Dholes, Asian Tapir, Clouded Leopard, Banteng, Serow, just to mention a few large mammals that occur in Thailand (I've seen them all; lucky me ). Google them if interested. All beautiful creatures. Elusive, you'll need patience and many visits to the national parks, but it is possible to see them!

I had no idea either about some of these species before I got here. It's an amazing country, hopefully we don't loose all this before people even know about it...

This year I photographed a large bull Gaur in one of Thailand's parks and the next morning I posed in his foot prints and let my wife make a picture to compare me with him. I stand 1.80m tall. The ridge of the back of the gaur was 5 cm taller than me!!! And according to internet info shoulder height can even reach over 2 metres! Horns 1 metre accross.

They are truly massive, record bulls weighing up to 1500 kg. Only Elephants, Rhinos, Hippos and the occassional large Giraffe grow larger.

Not sure what is happening now, but it indeed sounds fishy. Very discusting if it would be true that the socalled wildlife officials are doing this for personal benefits.

To me it's the one of the worst crimes, wildlife crimes.

Hopefully they found the true cause and hope this will stop soon (it probably will since these were supposedly all members from the same herd that only counted about 20 individuals.) Hopefully not more innocent animals get killed.

And if indeed people are responsible for this, lets hope they face justice and get an appropiate sentence.

Male-gaur-resting.jpg

Gaur1.jpg

Huge!

Thanks for posting. Images are (sometimes) worth 1000 words, but in this case maybe the Wiki Gaur Article has a lot more satisfying detail (for the more curious thinkers/readers).

^^ 'To me it's the one of the worst crimes, wildlife crimes.'

I agree wholeheartedly; and wildlife crime seems to be increasing, especially against elephants ( and collaterally damaged wildlife) where poisoning their water sources is a new evil.

MaxYakov, on 09 Jan 2014 - 13:08, said:MaxYakov, on 09 Jan 2014 - 13:08, said:

Costas2008, on 09 Jan 2014 - 11:13, said:Costas2008, on 09 Jan 2014 - 11:13, said:

Male-gaur-resting.jpg

Gaur1.jpg

Huge!

Thanks for posting. Images are (sometimes) worth 1000 words, but in this case maybe the Wiki Gaur Article has a lot more satisfying detail (for the more curious thinkers/readers).

The reason I posted these images is to show other posters what a powerful and beautiful animal a Gaur is.

And make them understand how low life people on this planet, get revenge, for a conflict over the removal of some protection officers by killing these wonderful animals.

Anyway....thanks for the remark........Point taken.