Ancient Creatures in a Lost World

By EUGENE LINDEN/VU QUANG

From his first day in Vu Quang, a reserve that lies on the mountainous divide separating Vietnam from Laos, biologist John MacKinnon realized that he had entered an extraordinary, almost magical domain. Working out of a small army base that in earlier years had housed North Vietnamese troops, MacKinnon and a team of Vietnamese researchers set out in May 1992 on an expedition sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund. Their mission: to survey the animals in a mysterious area of moist, dense forest largely unexplored by scientists.

Returning from his first hike in the forest, MacKinnon encountered zoologist Do Tuoc, who had spent the day talking with hunters in the nearby village of Kim Quang about wild goats in the region. MacKinnon felt a flash of excitement when Do Tuoc mentioned coming across skulls with long, curved horns mounted proudly on posts in hunters' houses. "You'd better show me," said MacKinnon, for he knew of no goats of that description in Southeast Asia.

It took him just a moment with the skulls to realize that he was looking at an animal unknown to science. Subsequent analysis of the specimens' dna by Peter Arctander at the University of Copenhagen showed that the 220-lb. animal, variously called the Vu Quang ox, the pseudoryx and the Sao-la, was not just a new species but a new genus, probably separated from its closest cattle-like relatives for the past 5 million to 10 million years.

Finding an undiscovered genus of large land mammal was a stunning event in itself -- only three other new genuses have been documented in this century. But MacKinnon's beast was just the first of the wonders to emerge from Vu Quang and adjoining forests in Vietnam and Laos. In the past two years scientists have also found evidence of what appears to be two new species of deerlike creatures -- the giant muntjac and the quang khem -- and a novel species of fish resembling carp. Since exploration is still in its early stages, hopes are high that many more discoveries will follow. The area is "a biological gold mine," says MacKinnon, who has spent 25 years as a field biologist in Asia. Says Colin Groves, a taxonomist at Australia's National University: "The region represents much more than the find of the year; it could be the find of the century." A place long closed off from the world by tyranny and war has suddenly become an open classroom of natural history.

The new animals remain elusive, known mostly through their bones and skins. But a team of British and Laotian fieldworkers under contract to New York's Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) say they have taken blood samples from a live specimen of one of the creatures -- the giant muntjac -- in a menagerie owned by a Laotian military group. If they are correct, studies of the captive animal could confirm the claim made earlier this year by Vietnamese scientists and MacKinnon concerning the giant muntjac. MacKinnon analyzed a skull brought to him by Do Tuoc and Shanthini Dawson, an Indian biologist. It resembled that $ of a muntjac, also known as a barking deer, but the head and antlers were much larger and configured differently. After measuring many varieties of muntjac skulls, MacKinnon decided the new specimen must have come from a distinct species, and Arctander concurred after studying its DNA. It is probably a new genus as well, though taxonomists will have to ponder that issue for a while. MacKinnon dubbed it the giant muntjac, figuring that it weighs about 100 lbs., or 50% more than the common muntjac.

Evidence of a third new mammal comes from the work of Vietnamese biologist Nguyen Ngoc Chinh, who went to Pu Mat, north of Vu Quang, to look for the Vu Quang ox. He returned with the skull of an animal the local hunters call quang khem, or slow-running deer, and scientists have taken to calling Chinh's deer. It is too early to say whether this is also a new species, but Arctander has so far been unable to match its DNA with that of known varieties of deer.

How could the natural riches of Vu Quang remain unknown to outsiders for so long, especially given the crowded conditions in much of Vietnam and the relentless deforestation taking place? Part of the explanation lies in the region's steep, ragged terrain and exceptionally wet, sweltering weather conditions. The mountainous spine that divides Vietnam and Laos traps moisture evaporated from the South China Sea, creating an unusually stable but inhospitable climate. Incessant rains during the rainy season and dripping fogs during the dry season nurture a slick algae that add a treacherous coating to rocks and other surfaces. That may explain why the Vu Quang ox evolved narrow, two-toed hooves with a concave area on the bottom that could give the animal a better grip on the terrain.

Humans have no such advantages. In addition to slippery rocks, infernal heat and regular downpours, the region has leeches and malaria to discourage two- legged visitors. On the Vietnamese side, even native hunters rarely remain long in the forest; instead they catch game by setting snares or by using dogs that chase animals down to the slightly more accessible riverbanks.

Nonetheless, the Vu Quang ox, giant muntjac and slow-running deer might have come to the attention of the world much sooner had Vietnam and Laos not been isolated by wars and trade embargoes. For many years, local hunters and even Laotian forest officials have used antlers taken from the animals as hat racks or as parts of ceremonial altars, unaware that these trophies represented species new to science. Indeed, MacKinnon found among the unsorted bones in the collection of Hanoi's Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources some skulls of the slow-running deer that had been gathering dust since the late 1960s, when they were picked up during a Vietnamese collecting expedition. During a recent trip to the institute, MacKinnon spotted yet another strange pair of antlers in the same box of bones. A fourth species? It defies probability, but he set the antlers aside for further investigation.

A common feature of the three newly discovered animals is their primitive characteristics, suggesting that they have remained essentially unchanged for aeons. The slow-running deer has simple horns that remind Arctander of a Viking helmet. The giant muntjac has large canine teeth that deerlike animals used in fights long ago, before they evolved elaborate antlers. All three animals have braincases that are relatively small in proportion to their size. Taxonomist Groves says the Vu Quang ox seems somewhat similar to the hemibos, an extinct creature that lived in India 5 million years ago.

The presence of what may be ancient species is evidence that Vu Quang and its environs have been ecologically stable for millions of years. "With no fluctuations in climate," Arctander explains, "relic species can survive for a very long time." Both Arctander and Groves say that given the diversity of the area, and its ability to support many large herbivores such as the newly discovered species as well as elephants, cattle-like gaur, sambar deer and forest hogs, the region may have served as a refuge through the ages, even as climate fluctuated elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

It is quite likely, however, that all the new species once roamed over larger areas than they do today. Human activities have transformed Southeast Asia far more significantly than climate shifts in recent centuries, and these changes have accelerated. As recently as 40 years ago, Vietnam had at least 50% of its original forests. Today less than 10% of those forests are still pristine. In fact, one reason new species are being discovered is that more people are penetrating ever deeper into ever dwindling forest.

Vu Quang was uninhabited until Vietnamese began to move in during the 1950s. This may explain why ancient species still survive. But now hunters' snares indiscriminately kill anything they trap, including endangered animals such as the tiger and sun bear. Human pressures have reduced the elephant population to as few as five animals, and the same fate could befall the species just uncovered. MacKinnon, disturbed by the connotations of the name slow-running deer, is worried that this animal may become extinct even before it is scientifically described.

The situation on the Laotian side is somewhat better. Laos is sparsely populated, but animals large and small are relentlessly hunted by both Hmong tribesmen and Vietnamese poachers who freely cross the border. Wildlife Conservation Society biologist George Schaller has noted that all villagers over the age of 13 seem to have guns, ranging from muzzle loaders to automatic weapons left behind during the war. Alan Rabinowitz, the organizer of the WCS team, says that the area still has remarkable diversity but that all species have been radically reduced by hunting. Laotian trees are also under threat, as deforested neighboring countries look covetously at Laos' timber.

Vietnam and Laos have ample reason to protect the region, if only to preserve vital watersheds and forests and to help halt the desertification that is slowly drying out much of Asia. The area also has global importance. Taxonomists believe it might be one of the best places in the world for studying biodiversity and how it evolves. Scientists have not even begun to examine the biological riches contained in the rugged hills. Says Arctander: "If mankind wants to preserve biodiversity, it makes sense to start in places like Vu Quang, which have proved able to sustain biodiversity for a long time."

Both countries have recently moved to protect these ecosystems. On the basis of recommendations by MacKinnon and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Vietnamese government has expanded the Vu Quang reserve from 40,000 to 150,000 acres and shut down logging in the park. Vu Quang connects to the 900,000-acre Nakai Nam Theum National Biodiversity Conservation Area in Laos, and if current proposals are adopted, the two areas will be joined to an additional 750,000 acres of reserves and the surrounding mountainous forests in Vietnam. There are also proposals to enlarge and link protected areas in Laos.

Protection, however, is meaningful only when enforced. It will be no small order for the two governments to control hunting and logging across a 1.75 million-acre expanse, particularly as both countries open their markets and officials and entrepreneurs look to make money.

Still, there is reason to hope that the remote, forbidding region will be preserved. Says David Hulse, head of wwf's efforts in Vietnam: "Hunting only supplements the diets of local villagers, and it imposes little hardship to ask them to put it aside if that is necessary to protect unique natural treasures." Moreover, some influential Vietnamese have become alarmed at the stripping of the nation's forests. General Vo Nguyen Giap, the legendary architect of North Vietnamese military strategy during the wars against France and the U.S., has reportedly remarked to visitors that Vietnam did not fight for decades to gain control of its resources only to squander them once it was independent. Indeed, a people with the will to fight a superpower should have the ability to protect Vu Quang and its many glories.