Bangkok - The 163 species discovered last year in the Greater Mekong River region, including a bird-eating fanged frog and a technicoloured gecko, are high on the list for extinction because of climate change, a World Wild Fund for Nature report said Friday. "Rare, endangered and endemic species like those newly discovered are especially vulnerable because climate change will further shrink their already restricted habitats," said Stuart Chapman, director of the WWF Greater Mekong Programme.
According to recent studies, the climate of the Greater Mekong is already changing. Models suggest the region will see average temperatures rise 2 to 4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, with increased rainfall and more frequent and damaging extreme climate events.
Rising seas and saltwater intrusion was projected to profoundly impact coastal areas, especially the Mekong River Delta, which is one of the three most vulnerable deltas on Earth, according to the most recent International Panel on Climate Change report.
With its high-level of bio-diversity, the Greater Mekong region is particularly vulnerable to climate change, the WWF said.
"The Mekong is one of world's truly bio-diverse hot spots," Chapman said. "The river is the second most bio-diverse in the world."
In 2008, scientists discovered 163 unique species in the Greater Mekong - 100 plants, 28 fish, 18 reptiles, 14 amphibians, two mammals and a bird - according to the WWF report Close Encounters.
The region, comprising the countries through which the 4,350-kilometre-long Mekong River flows, spans Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the south-western Chinese province of Yunnan.
Among the new species discovered was the fanged frog, which lies in streams waiting for prey; a leopard gecko with orange eyes, spindly limbs and technicolour skin; and the Nonggang babbler, a bird that appears to prefer walking to flying and the Odessa Barb Fish, previously thought to be a man-created hybrid popular in Ukrainian aquariums.
Samples of Odessa Barb Fish were found in a remote stream in Myanmar by a perplexed scientist last year.
"The scientist was stunned when he was looking at the fish he had in his net, in the wild, comparing it with one in a Ukrainian aquarium trade book," Chapman said.
The WWF acknowledged that the more traditional threats to endangered species, such as the global pet trade in exotic species, hunting, deforestation and big dams remain the principal menace to these new species as well as old species.
"The other threats are imminent ones," said Geoff Blate, climate change coordinator for the WWF Greater Mekong Programme. "What we need to do is deal with climate change and these other threats in an integrated way."
The WWF has urged the riparian countries of the Mekong to cooperate in keeping the river free of dams, and other threats to its bio-diversity.
"The Mekong River is one of the last rivers in the world that is still wild and free-flowing, at least south of China," Blate said. "From a climate change perspective, it is really important to keep it free flowing."
The report by the environmental group was released days before the launch of two weeks of UN climate change talks to be held in Bangkok Monday through October 9 in the lead-up to a climate summit in December in Copenhagen, where the world was scheduled to agree on a new global climate treaty.
