Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre

Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre
Date opened	1995
Location	Takéo Province, Cambodia
Land area	6,000 acres
No. of animals	1200
No. of species	102

The Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre (PTWRC;

Rescued animals at Phnom Tamao can be seen through general park admission, through the wildlife tours organized by Wildlife Alliance, Free the Bears, and independent tour operators.^[5]

Bears

Phnom Tamao is home to the world's largest group of rescued

Elephants at Phnom Tamao have been trained using gentle Positive Reinforcement or Target Training. This means that they will simply not receive their “reward” (pieces of fruit or vegetables) if they do not follow the keeper's verbal command. It is often preferable to train captive elephants because they can then be handled more safely, which means their health can be checked and they can be better cared for.[7]

Chhouk The youngest male elephant at Phnom Tamao has a prosthetic leg. Chhouk was found wandering alone in the Srepok Wilderness Area in

Lucky The most charismatic elephant at Phnom Tamao, Lucky is the "gentle giant" who has been trained through rewards-based positive reinforcement to respond to 20 different words (in English and Khmer). Watching and interacting with Lucky has helped endear and engage visitors in the experience of the elephants.^[7]

Tigers

The Cambodian Forestry Administration assisted by Wildlife Alliance confiscated 7 tigers in a sting operation in Phnom Penh in the year 2000. This was done to demonstrate that tigers could still be illegally purchased in Cambodia, despite the fact that there are now almost none left in the wild. One had been so severely beaten that she died of brain damage. The others were nursed backed to health, quickly responding to the care they received from Wildlife Alliance. The tigers are now kept in pairs in their large, forested enclosures.^[7]

Rescue of Wildlife throughout Cambodia

All of the animals living at PTWRC were confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade, victims of habitat loss, donated by a private owner, or rescued in a human-wildlife conflict situation. Most were rescued by the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team, formed in 2001. The Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team has rescued more than 50,000 live animals and confiscated large quantities of animal parts and other contraband.^[2]

The Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team (WRRT) was established in cooperation with Wildlife Alliance, Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery’s Department of Forestry Administration and the Royal Gendarmerie Khmer. WRRT is a 14-member team composed of Forestry Administration officials and Military Police who are mandated to crack down on the illegal wildlife trade throughout Cambodia, tracking down poachers and traffickers, raiding restaurants, markets, and stores, and investigating trafficking networks in cities and along borders. WRRT is a unique law enforcement squad in Southeast Asia, being devoted solely to combating the illegal wildlife trade.^[2]

WRRT receives tips from a covert informant network and from the nationwide public hotline number. When WRRT rescues live animals, those that are healthy and suited for the wild are immediately released in an appropriate habitat. Animals that cannot be released because of injuries or trauma are cared for by Wildlife Alliance's Care for Rescued Wildlife team at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center.^[2]

While Wildlife Alliance provides capacity building with logistical and technical support to WRRT, WRRT also trains teams working for other organizations that are addressing the illegal wildlife trade, both in the manner in which they conduct operations and in animal handling skills. WRRT’s skill in handling and caring for rescued wild animals is such that there are almost never any fatalities, despite the poor conditions in which most traded wildlife is found.^[3]

In 2010 Wildlife Alliance worked with the Cambodian Government to implement ASEAN-WEN (Wildlife Enforcement Network) in which authorities work with their counterparts in the neighboring countries to try to stop the cross-border trade.^[2]

Illegal Wildlife Trade

Until 2001, Cambodia’s most prominent markets openly displayed rare animals for purchase and wildlife meats were commonplace on restaurant menus. Today wildlife dishes are no longer available at 90% of restaurants in the nation’s capital.^[2] Today the illegal wildlife trade is predominantly run by the same dangerous groups behind drug and weapons trafficking.^[3]

When illegal traders are caught by the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team (WRRT), their contraband and equipment are confiscated. Traders are handed over to the courts, who impose prison terms and fines. Fines can be considerable and amounts of money have risen steadily as officials realize the importance of implementing laws protecting wild animals. This acts as a great deterrent, which ultimately makes it unprofitable for traders to stay in business. The Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team is not a forest patrol unit but a task force with a nationwide mandate that deals with the illegal trade, usually conducted from towns and cities. It does not address subsistence hunting but mostly the lucrative business conducted by middle men, who sell live and dead wild animals to restaurants and medical stores or export wildlife for consumption in neighboring countries.^[3]

Release of Rescued Wildlife

Rescued animals that are deemed suitable for release into the wild are relocated to a Wildlife Rehabilitation Station (WRS) created by Wildlife Alliance in

• Elephants in Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre in Cambodia in the elephant database

References

11°18′02″N 104°48′04″E / 11.30056°N 104.80111°E / 11.30056; 104.80111