The kouprey: Does Cambodia’s national mammal and cultural symbol even exist anymore?


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Two pairs of gangly white legs propping up a narrow, dark body with a humped back, drooping dewlap and curved horns are the tell-tale features of Cambodia’s national mammal, the kouprey. Once found in the grasslands and open forests of northern Cambodia and southernmost Laos, the near-mythical wild cattle species has not been definitively sighted for more than half a century. The International Union for Conservation of Nature – the world’s foremost authority on species’ threatened status – says the kouprey is “most likely to be extinct” in its assessment. But a combination of local politics and data deficiencies have...