Secret cameras, mics and AI reveal rare Cambodia wildlife
Secret cameras, mics and AI reveal rare Cambodia wildlife
Publish Date: 2026-06-24 22:18:00
Source Domain: www.rfi.fr
Cardamom National Park (Cambodia) (AFP) – Above the patter of rain cascading through the jungle canopy comes the haunting call of a pileated gibbon singing to fend off intruders in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains.
It is being recorded as part of work harnessing hidden microphones, cameras and artificial intelligence to reveal the secrets of species living deep in the rainforest and help protect them.
To conservationist Ratha Sor, the whoops and whistles are the sound of hope — a sign that the country’s largest remaining stretch of intact rainforest is healthy enough to support the endangered species.
Gibbons are “indicators that our forest is still alive”, he said.
By showing that everything from pangolins to elephants call the Cardamom Mountains home, conservationists hope to secure its future, in a country that has lost over a third of its forest cover in the last 25 years.
“This is the real evidence… we are conserving very unique species in our landscape,” said Ratha Sor, biodiversity and science manager at Conservation International (CI), a US-headquartered non-profit.
The Cardamoms range, spread across more than a million hectares (2.47 million acres) in southwest Cambodia, is regarded as one of the most important remaining rainforests in the region.
For decades, it was eaten away by rampant deforestation and emptied by poaching.
Bolstered protections have helped slow both, though infrastructure projects, including dams, remain a serious threat.
In 2024, CI published the results of the first-ever systematic camera trap survey of the Central Cardamom region, revealing more than 100 resident species, nearly two dozen of them either vulnerable or endangered.
That effort, involving nearly 150 devices placed at regular intervals, will be repeated later this year.
It is supplemented by ongoing targeted camera trapping, focused on areas where animals are likely to be and offering deeper understanding of how…
