Endangered Animals Rescued by Police

Two men were arrested on Saturday in Modulkiri province after being found transporting 103 kilograms of live endangered animals in the trunk of their car. Koh Nhek district police chief Klot Sokhea told Khmer Times that police officers, in cooperation with officials from the provincial environment department, had stopped the car following reports it was transporting animals.
 

In the trunk, he said that officers found 40 pangolins, one monkey, one otter, six cobras and eight turtles. All were released back into nearby forest on Sunday, he said, with the support of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) rangers.
 

Chhith Sam Ath, country director for WWF-Cambodia, said yesterday that loss of forest habitat and increased poaching and encroachment from villagers posed a serious threat to Cambodia’s wildlife. With the country’s population rising, he said that demand for increasingly endangered wild animals, both for domestic consumption and sale abroad, was also increasing.

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