Several unusual species were found in the Mekong in Southeast Asia. One of them is a Lao plant species, only 30 of which were found on the walls of the waterfall.
During the years 2021 and 2022, researchers have discovered a total of 380 different new species in the Mekong river region, according to a recent WWF report. There are 290 plants, 19 fish, 24 amphibians, 46 reptiles and one mammal.
There are individual and wonderful species, such as the Calotes goetzi found in Cambodia. It is a lizard that defends itself by changing color.
The most new species were found in Vietnam: 62 new species were verified there in 2021 and 96 in 2022.
Two very rare plant finds and a camouflaged frog
Perhaps the rarest finds include Impatiens subfalcata. Only 30 representatives of this plant species were found in Laos and they were all in the same place: on the wet walls of the Tad Seua waterfall.
A new plant species, Dendrobium fuscifaucium, was verified in a nursery in Laos. This miniature orchid is an unusual find in that it has not yet been found in the wild.
The Vietnamese frog species Theloderma khoii, on the other hand, was found in forested limestone mountains. It can very skilfully blend in, for example, among green moss.
“We must do everything we can to stop the extinction”
The Mekong region, which extends to the territory of Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, is naturally the most diverse in the world, but also the most threatened, WWF reminds.
Although hundreds of new species were discovered in the area, the rich diversity of nature is threatened by, among other things, deforestation, poaching and construction that damages waterways.
– These incredible species have survived and developed in the Mekong for millions of years. They have lived here long before humans. We have to do everything we can to stop their threatened extinction, says K. Yoganandadirector of the WWF Mekong Regional Wildlife Program in a WWF news release.