The Greater Mekong is one of Earth’s biodiversity hotspots. It spans the Mekong River basin through Campoya, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and China. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF in English) has published this Monday a list of 380 new species of animals and plants discovered in this region of Southeast Asia during 2021 and 2022.
Calotes goetzi Henrik Bringsoe
The finds include a color-changing lizard, a poisonous snake named after a mythological Chinese goddess, a pink bee-shaped orchid, a mouse-eared bat and a tree frog whose skin resembles moss. With many of these species threatened with extinction due to human activity, WWF urges governments in the region to increase protection of these rare and unique species, as well as their habitats.
The report documents the work of hundreds of scientists from universities, conservation organizations and research institutes around the world. The new species described for the first time by scientists include 290 plants, 19 fish, 24 amphibians, 46 reptiles and one mammal found in remote areas of the Greater Mekong region. This increases the total number of vascular plants, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals described in the area since 1997 to a total of 3,389.
The new species discovered in the Greater Mekong WWF
“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 of humans who were here long before our species moved to this region,” he says. K. Yoganand, WWF-Greater Mekong Regional Wildlife Leader.
NEW SPECIES DISCOVERED IN THE GREAT MEKONG
The Cambodian blue crested agama, an aggressive lizard that changes color as a defensive mechanism, was identified after studying lizards found near an Angkor-era archaeological site. Hayes’s thick-thumbed bat, is a mouse-eared bat with unusual fleshy thumbs that was named as a new species after a specimen sat in a Hungarian museum for 20 years. The Khoi Mossy Frog, a great discovery, has a mossy green color that helps it blend into any rocky, leafy, lichen- and moss-covered background. Dendrobium fuscifaucium, a miniature orchid with bright pink and yellow color that resembles a bee. Suzken’s krait snake, an extremely venomous snake, named after Bai Su Zhen, a goddess of snakes from a Chinese myth called ”The Legend of the White Snake”. Cleyera bokorensis, a green shrub threatened by a Cambodian casino, dam construction, and residential development. The Thai crocodile salamander from Vietnam is threatened by communities that use it as a traditional cure for abdominal pain and parasitic infections. The bent-toed gecko of Thailand was named after a nymph, Rukha Deva, who lives in trees and protects forests. Discovered in the Tenasserim Mountains bordering Myanmar, it aggressively opens its mouth and flicks its tail from side to side when threatened. A new species of gecko discovered in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, whose home is being bulldozed by construction projects. A semi-aquatic snake, Hebius terrakarenorum, found in Dawna-Tenasserim, between Thailand and Myanmar. It is 650 mm long and was identified only from photographs and road kill specimens collected over a decade.
Pink orchid in the shape of a WWF bee
The wildlife conservation group also called on governments to increase protection of rare creatures and their habitats, with many species already threatened with extinction due to human activities. The new species are “under intense pressure from deforestation, habitat degradation, road development, loss of streams and rivers, pollution, disease spread by human activities, competition from invasive species, and devastating impacts of the illegal wildlife trade. Unfortunately, many species go extinct before they are even discovered,” says WWF.
