Can Asia’s large mammals be saved from extinction? A. Christy
Williams 28th October, 2011 The Javan rhino isn’t the only south
east Asian mammal whose future looks bleak, says the WWF’s A.
Christy Williams Earlier this year, when I received the results
of DNA analysis of rhino dung and tissue samples gathered from
the Cat Tien National Park in Vietnam, it confirmed our worst
fears. The last Javan rhino in the country had been poached in
early 2010. It’s an event that could be the first milestone on a
potentially inexorable slide towards the extinction of several
large mammals in south east Asia. In the 1990s, as the region
opened up after years of war, there was a real feeling of joy
and optimism amongst conservationists, when several large
mammals were either re-discovered (the Javan rhinos in Cat Tien)
or newly discovered (the Saola, Giant Muntjac in Laos and
Vietnam) and protected areas, on paper at least, were being set
up at a rapid pace. Non-government organisations (NGOs), with
support from government