Call to raise awareness on endangered species

"There are eight types of wildcats in Thailand, and two of them have already been put on the World Conservation Union's red list of threatened species, which include flatheaded cats and fishing cats," Boripat Siriaroonrat, a veterinarian and assistant director of the Zoological Park Organisation's conservation, research and education unit, said yesterday.

"A big issue we have discussed during the summit is that we want Southeast Asian countries to rush to educate both urban people and those who live near forests about wildcats to make them love those cats so that it will be easier to encourage them to help conserve these kinds of animals," he said.

Few media provided children information about wildcats. Television programmes, brochures, books, websites and other media should provide more coverage of the issue, he said.

The main reasons for the decimation of the wildcat population in Thailand were that they are less studied, laws implemented to protect them have some impairment, villagers are accustomed to hunting wild animals as their way of life and researchers in this field are insufficient.

"I want to see more researchers studying about wild animals. They will be able to help protect such animals and their knowledge can be applied to benefit the country," he said.

More than 60 personnel from 14 countries, including experts in field research, wildlife trade and community education, attended the summit to assess the current status of these species and study the severity of the threats the cats face. They also used this information to create a regional conservation action plan.

"The summit hosted by Thailand is the first and important step to ensure that clouded leopards and other wildcats dwelling in our country won't be extinct before Thais learn to understand their nature," said Sopon Damnui, director of the ZPO.

Thailand has succeeded in naturally breeding 40 clouded leopards after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the US six years ago, Boripat said.

Both countries are trying to breed other species, including fishing cats, Asian golden cats, flatheaded cats, leopard cats and jungle cats.

"We'll sign another MoU next Tuesday with the aim to exchange collaboration between the two countries, for instance veterinarian and nutrition training," Boripat said.