Tonle Sap Lake
The Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. It forms a natural floodplain reservoir in the depression of the Cambodian plain and is drained by the Tonle Sap River into the Mekong River near Phnom Penh.
Tonle Sap was designated as a UNESCO biosphere in 1997.
It is home to the Asian Small-Clawed and Smooth-Coated Otters, and one of the four locations on earth where the Hairy-Nosed Otter is found.
Conservation International (CI) initiated an otter research and conservation project in Cambodia in 2006. The populations of hairy-nosed otters at Tonle Sap may be the largest and most viable known to exist today. Sadly, studies also showed that hunting of otters is prevalent in Cambodia as the skins are valuable on the black market. The research team at Tonle Sap regularly find skins of both hairy-nosed otter and smooth-coated otter at fishermen’s houses
In a recent interview, a fisherman and otter hunter from the Tonle Sap Lake said that since 2003, he alone had caught and sold 50 otters covering all three species including the incredibly rare Hairy-Nosed Otter.
That's ONE hunter ...
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