News in Photos: Hope for the survival of giant ibis in Cambodia

 

This handout photo taken on March 29, 2012 and released by the World Wildlife Fund-Cambodia (WWF-Cambodia) on August 20, 2013 shows a giant ibis walking in a pond in Mondulkiri province, some 500 kilometers northeast of Phnom Penh. Jubilant conservationists expressed hope on August 20 for the survival of the critically-endangered giant ibis after a nest of the bird species was discovered in a previously unknown habitat in northeastern Cambodia. Habitat loss and poaching has pushed the bird to the edge of extinction, with around only 345 of the reclusive creatures — distinctive for their bald heads and long beaks — left anywhere in the world, 90 percent of them in Cambodia.

Photo credit: AFP PHOTO / World Wildlife Fund-Cambodia