Wildlife of Lao PDR: 1999 Status Report - IUCN

enefits gained by eating the species, it is probably meaningless
to attempt to distinguish between the food trade and
medicinal trade (Jenkins 1995). Therefore, both trades are
referred to here as the ‘consumption trade’. The value of some
reptile species, particularly turtles, for the consumption trade
in Vietnam and China provides great incentive to local people
in Lao PDR to collect and sell them to traders. A demand
for turtles, monitors, and crocodiles by Thai traders has also
been identified in southern Lao PDR by Baird (1993), although
work in 1998 indicated a much greater influence from
Vietnamese traders in most of Lao PDR.
The major trade routes for reptiles and other wildlife originate
in Lao PDR and Cambodia and pass northwards through
Hanoi (Vietnam) and onto China. Two Forest Protection
Department (FPD) officers in Khe Sanh, Quang Tri Province,
estimated that 70% of the wildlife in trade in central
Vietnam originates in Lao PDR (Compton in prep. a). Most
wildlife in trade in Vietnam is exported on to China. For
example, only an estimated 10% of the turtles collected in
Vietnam are consumed domestically (Le Dien Duc and Broad
1995). The volume of reptiles traded through Vietnam is staggering.
In 1997 the Ninh Binh Provincial FPD in Vietnam
confiscated from traders approximately 187 kg of frogs, 580
kg of turtles, 12 kg of geckos, 1522 kg of monitors Varanus
bengalensis and V. salvator, 2422 kg of ratsnakes (probably
Ptyas korros and P. mucosus), 53 kg of cobras (probably Naja
kaouthia), 119 kg of King Cobras Ophiophagus hannah, and
637 kg of miscellaneous snakes (Compton in prep. a). These
figures represent only a fraction of trade that was intercepted
passing through a single area in Vietnam in one year, and so
the actual volume of wildlife that passes annually from Lao
PDR through Vietnam and onto China must be enormous.
Without question, this trade is the most significant threat to
national populations of herpetofauna in Lao PDR and elsewhere
in Indochina.
Turtles are the most heavily exploited group of
herpetofauna in Lao PDR for both domestic consumption
and sale, and export to Vietnam and China. Turtles have probably
long been collected for domestic consumption. Softshell
turtles are especially valued for the taste of their meat. However,
local people report that in the last ten years or so, a
strong market for turtles has developed with Vietnamese traders.
This demand has resulted in turtles being collected at
much higher levels than before, and subsequently many species
have reportedly declined rapidly. Without controls on
the harvest and export of turtles, most populations in Lao
PDR are seriously threatened, and at least a couple of species
may even be extirpated in the near future. For this reason,
all turtles are considered Key Species.
Monitors, pythons and King Cobra are also consistently
reported throughout Lao PDR to be heavily targetted for food
or sale to Lao or foreign traders, and indeed monitors and
snakes were two of the three most heavily traded groups of
wildlife in Ninh Binh Province, Vietnam in 1997 (Compton
in prep. a).
Many of these species are hunted by local people with
Amphibians and Reptiles
specially-trained dogs (Plate 5), among other methods. These
dogs are highly revered by their owners for the large income
which they can potentially generate. One man in Pu Mat
Nature Reserve (Nghe An Province, Vietnam) in 1998 told
the author that he was unable to estimate the monetary worth
of his hunting dog, and that the dog had long financially supported
his family. By probably no coincidence, most of the
more seriously threatened turtle species are those which are
terrestrial and can be harvested in large numbers with the
use of hunting dogs.
It is unknown at present which species of amphibians
and reptiles are seriously threatened by habitat loss in Lao
PDR. Those species most in jeopardy probably inhabit the
Mekong floodplain. Many of the wetlands used by Siamese
Crocodile have been cleared and drained for agricultural lands
(Claridge 1996), but wild crocodiles in Lao PDR are far more
seriously threatened by hunting. At present there is no evidence
that any species of herpetofauna in Lao PDR is more
threatened by habitat loss than by harvesting.
No frogs have been listed as key species because it is yet
unclear whether their populations are declining in Lao PDR.
A number of villages in Khon District, Champasak Province,
have reported a decline in the ranid frog Hoplobatrachus
rugulosa, which they have attribute to over-harvesting for
sale to markets outside the district (I. Baird verbally 1999).
One village in Khammouan Limestone NBCA reported also
a decline in frogs, which was blamed on unsuccessful reproduction
because of sporadic rains in recent years (Stuart
1998b). The three frog species most commonly seen in markets,
Hoplobatrachus rugulosa, Rana limnocharis and
Microhyla pulchra, all thrive in agricultural and disturbed
areas, and so are not confounded with the added threat of
habitat loss. However, recent use of pesticides in agricultural
lands and increased access to headlamps for night searching
pose new threats to frogs.
The threat to amphibians and reptiles from introduction
of exotic species is low in Lao PDR. However, two potential
sources are worthy of mention. First, the Red-eared Slider
Trachemys scripta elegans, a turtle native to south-east
U.S.A., has been introduced in many countries around the
world, including neighbouring Thailand, by released animals
from the pet trade (Jenkins 1995, Cox et al. 1998). This
species was seen for sale in a Vientiane aquarium shop in
December 1998 (BLS). Escaped individuals of this successful
colonist could pose a threat to native populations of turtles
by competitive exclusion or spread of disease, were the
species to become popular for food, as pets or as release animals
in Buddhist tradition. Whether the threat of colonisation
by this exotic outweighs the possible benefits from relieving
pressure on native species as food and trade commodities
is unknown. Secondly, at least two commercial frog
farms, one in Vientiane (J. Foppes verbally 1999) and one
near the Lao border in Udom-Ratchatani, Thailand (T. Hansel
verbally 1998) reportedly rear native ranid frogs that have
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