Once thought extinct, Thailand's rarest bird, the enigmatic Gurney's pitta (nok taew laew tong dam in Thai), might not totally disappear from the wild after all. In April, local conservationists photographed a lone female close to the Khao Pra-Bang Khram Wildlife Sanctuary near Krabi. This was the news bird lovers had been waiting for. Some 200km away in a Department for National Parks facility in Surat Thani, a single male waited in captivity.
"The DNP worked quickly," said Boripat Siriaroonrat, chairman of the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand and a specialist in wildlife reproduction at Chulalongkorn University.
Soon the precious male was being settled into the Krabi sanctuary. "To get used to the wild, the bird was contained in an enclosure in the forest," Mr Boripat said. "It was breeding season and he was singing to attract a mate."
Experts hoped he would attract the female and they would pair up.
"Local officials, NGOs and the DNP then carried out a 90-person-strong survey of the area, confirming the presence of a further female and two males. This brought Thailand's wild Gurney's pitta population to four, plus the captive male," said Somying Thunikorn, a senior technical forestry officer at the DNP's Wildlife Research Division.
The Gurney's pitta is a pretty little songbird. The eye-catching male displays a dazzling blue head and tail, a black and bright yellow body with chocolate brown wings. The more muted female has an orange head, a white and greyish striped body, also with brown wings. Why are so few left in Thailand today?
CRUCIAL HABITATS LOST
Philip Round, an associate professor of biology at Mahidol University, pins the blame on unregulated expansion of oil palm and rubber plantations throughout southern Thailand. This has decimated the birds' lowland forest habitats. Growing numbers of small plantations have left areas close to Khao Pra-Bang Khram Wildlife Sanctuary as Thailand's only surviving lowland forest.
LET'S BE MATES: From May to October every year, the Gurney's pitta has its breeding season in the last lowland tropical forest in southern Thailand, near Khao Pra-Bang Khram Wildlife Sanctuary.
Mr Round has played a significant role in the story of the Gurney's pitta in Thailand. The bird was thought to be extinct until 1986 when he and his colleagues rediscovered about 40 breeding pairs close to what later became the wildlife sanctuary. The next year, parts of the forest were categorised as non-hunting areas by the Royal Forest Department (which later became the DNP). This did not halt plantation development.
Much of the area was declared a national reserve forest in the 1960s, setting it aside for logging and banning plantation development. Unchecked by officials, oil palm and rubber smallholdings continued to be established, often by new arrivals from neighbouring provinces. The resulting habitat loss meant that when the few Gurney's pitta did breed, there were no new territories for their offspring to spread out into, Prof Round said.
In 1993, the Royal Forest Department founded the wildlife sanctuary. But it made a crucial error, excluding the lowland forest to avoid confrontation with plantation owners. "Instead the sanctuary covered mostly steep hill slopes -- marginal habitat for the Gurney's pitta," Mr Round wrote in 2014. Most of the surviving pairs were left outside. And plantation encroachment continued.
Strategies for sustainable agroforestry and ecotourism were tried. Worldwide interest was attracted as birdwatchers visited to tick the rare bird off their bucket lists. Potential work as guides and the creation of homestays in surrounding villages was explored, but forest clearance persisted. "People benefit more from plantations than from ecotourism. How can a village of 1,000 people be financially supported by what was a population of 40 birds?" said Mr Boripat.
By 2000, the Gurney's pitta was spiralling towards extinction. Mr Round laments that 30 years after his rediscovery, the bird is essentially extinct in Thailand. If chicks do hatch, he doubts whether conservationists will be able to find them suitable lowland habitats. Fortunately, Thailand is not the Gurney's pitta's only chance.
HOPE IN MYANMAR
Across the border in Myanmar's southern Tanintharyi division lies similar lowland forest and a potential safe haven for the Gurney's pitta. As in Thailand, local experts believed the bird to be extinct until 2003 surveys by the BirdLife Indochina programme revealed a significant population.
In 2009, Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds optimistically estimated there were between 9,300 and 35,000 separate areas occupied by the bird. Although research is ongoing, current guesstimates fall short of this figure. Thiri Dae We Aung of Myanmar's Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (Banca) explained that there may be between 500 and 800 individuals left.
This scientific knowledge was hard won. Intrepid researchers working with Banca had to trek for days into seriously remote areas held by Karen National Union insurgents. They were accompanied by specialist KNU guides who ensured researchers did not step on landmines left behind during the conflict with government forces.
A 2015 report published in the journal Conservation Biology highlights how the volatile security situation once protected lowland forest areas in southern Myanmar. As the country's democratisation and peace process continue and international economic sanctions are eased, the report found big business is gaining better access, threatening these once isolated forests.
It concludes that since 2000 deforestation mostly caused by oil palm development has been "widespread and accelerating throughout southern Tanintharyi". The Gurney's pitta is again threatened by habitat loss, increasing the chances of Myanmar following Thailand's sad example. There is, however, the possibility of a brighter outcome.
Thiri Dae We Aung's hopes lie with the establishment of Myanmar's Lenya National Park and extensions to it. First proposed in 2002, the park has not yet been formally sanctioned by the government. Such a park would protect some of Southeast Asia's last remaining lowland forests, 120 breeding pairs of Gurney's pitta and many other globally threatened species.
A central challenge is building a lasting peace between the KNU and the national government. The area is subject to KNU control. With its own laws and policies for forest protection, the KNU is sceptical about the benefits of oil palm plantations and supportive of the proposal. Nevertheless, it is concerned about potential restrictions imposed on local people by central government within the new park's boundaries.
Fauna & Flora International's Mark Grindley says the government needs to consult with all stakeholders and keep its policies under review. In 2014, some previously granted oil palm concessions within the lowland forest were officially revoked, slowing deforestation. Fauna & Flora is working on community management and plans for sustainable plantations outside the park. Official designation of a national park may be the only hope for the Gurney's pitta, and time is running out.
NEXT STEPS
Myanmar and Lenya National Park represent the long-term solution. Myanmar has an opportunity to save the bird that Thailand missed when it failed to adequately halt deforestation three decades ago. Mr Round hopes that "Myanmar will learn from Thailand's mistakes and safeguard significant areas of lowland forest before it too is cleared".
Thailand is also learning from past mistakes. "The DNP has approved a budget for a four-point recovery plan: safeguarding the Gurney's pitta population in Krabi, a breeding programme, restoration of lowland forest, and greater public awareness of the bird's plight," said Mr Somying of the Wildlife Research Division.
Regional action is also needed, said Mr Boripat, with both countries supporting each other in conservation efforts. There are tentative plans for a bilateral meeting at the end of the year, with subsequent annual meetings until 2018.
But perhaps the demise of the Gurney's pitta in Thailand and its potential destruction in Myanmar signify something wider. The bird is symbolic of countless other animals and plants teetering on the brink of extinction in the region's last remnants of lowland forest. There's much to learn from Thailand's sad story of a pretty little songbird, with consequences to consider if forest destruction continues and causes it and other species to be lost forever.
SALVATION: The lowland forest of Khao Pra-Bang Khram Wildlife Sanctuary is the last known habitat of the critically endangered Gurney's pitta. Photos: Bkk Post Archive
ACCUSER: Philip Round blames unregulated expansion of oil palm and rubber plantations. Photo: Somchai Poomlard
