Beautiful paradise flycatcher a few days ago just across the Mekong.

📷 Female Blyth's paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone affinis)

#birdoftheday #birds

This would also reduce the cost of anti-poaching law enforcement and its negative social impacts (another issue in Cambodia), as @emieldelange.bsky.social says here.

Clipping from my story on bird hunting drivers dialogue.earth/en/nature/bi...

Meanwhile in Southeast Asia, endangered species are regularly found in captivity, like this baby Long-tailed macaque kept in a mini-zoo behind a gas station, a casualty of the biomedical research trade, the pet trade, tourism, deforestation, corruption and poor law enforcement.

It is high time for countries in Southeast Asia to follow suit. In Cambodia most of merit release is already illegal (selling wild-caught native species, releasing top priority invasive species) but allowed in practice by the authorities.

Thanks @mikeshanahan.bsky.social for sharing our work on the threat of bird hunting in the latest edition of Nature Beat.

If you don't know this newsletter, it's a great round-up on what's happening in the biodiversity, nature and climate space.

Female scarlet-backed flowerpecker rubbing herself against wet leaves for her morning bath in downtown Phnom Penh.
#birds #birding #cambodia

Meanwhile in Cambodia, you can find animals similarly listed on CITES appendix 1 for sale on Facebook and Telegram, like this vulnerable Hyacinth macaws for $30,000.

Among them are Endangered Ring-tailed lemurs like this one from a troop who grew accustomed to humans in the Tsaranoro valley - due in part to the local ecotourism camp growing their favorite fig trees.

📷 Madagascar, 2013 (Rolleiflex w/ Fuji Pro 400H)

Millions of animals are caught and sold every year across Southeast Asia for merit release. The trade endangers several bird species while introducing invasive ones.

My recent work on the reality behind the practice is on the cover of SCMP Post Magazine.

Read here www.scmp.com/magazines/po...