Student in to the jungle : Jedkod Saraburi

VDO from siamensis.org Team By Black-hornbill.

Satidjula science camp'50.
We(siamensois.org team) go to assist them walk in to the night jungle.
Morning, Enjoy the birds on big tree.
Thai names -Ngeiw ,Ngiew Daeng
Common Name - Kapok Tree, Cotton Tree, Red Cotton Tree, Silk Cotton Tree,Shving Brush Scientific Name - Bombax ceiba , Bombax ceiba Linn

Jedkod - Ponkonsao Waterfall, Saraburi Thailand

Part#1 Night Junjle


Part#2 Birds vision

ARCHER FISH เสือขมังธนู

Toxotes microlepis

The archerfish (or archer fish) are a family (Toxotidae) of fish known for their habit of preying on insects and other small animals by shooting them down with water droplets from their specialized mouths. A large lower jaw helps these fish to hunt. The family is a small one, consisting of seven species in the genus Toxotes; all occur in fresh, brackish, and marine waters from India to the Philippines, Australia, Louisiana and Polynesia.

Archerfish bodies are deep and compressed, with the dorsal fin set far back, and the profile a straight line from dorsal fin to mouth. The mouth is protractile, and the lower jaw juts out. Sizes are generally small, but T. chatareus can reach 40 cm.

Archerfish are remarkably accurate in their shooting; adult fish almost always hit the target on the first shot. They can bring down an insect six feet above the water's surface. This is partially due to their good eyesight, but also because of their ability to compensate for the refraction which occurs when light travels through water. They do this by swimming directly under the prey, where the distortion is the least. However, experimentation has shown that the Archerfish can hit prey at greater angles than a perpendicular angle without losing on accuracy.

When an archerfish selects its prey, it sticks its snout just above the surface and squirts a jet of water at its victim. It does this using the narrow groove that is formed in the roof of its mouth. It presses its tongue against this groove to form a narrow channel, then contracts its gill covers to force a powerful jet of water through the channel.

The resulting jet of water can be up to 2-5 m long, but their accuracy only allows them to shoot insects 1-1.5 m away. If the first shot does not knock the victim into the water, the archerfish will keep trying. Young archerfish start shooting when they are about 2.5 cm long, but are inaccurate at first and must learn from experience. During this learning period, they hunt in small swarms. This way, the probability that at least one jet will hit is higher. The fish can also alter the power of the shot for prey of different sizes.

Let go to the sea and rock harzard

Some pictures from Kow Lam Yar National Park
Kon Aow Beach, Rayong near Rayong Resort

Dive Under moon

Microrasbora kubotai(ซิวเขียว) Video

Microrasbora kubotai(ซิวเขียว) Video from Suriya river

Morphology:

Vertebrae: 29. In the field, translucent yellow; aquarium-kept greenish yellow, with a glowing golden lateral stripe, belly, eye and opercle. Hyaline fins. Longitudinal scale series 24-25 + 1. Branched anal rays 9-10. Dorsal fin rays 2-3 simple, 7 branched. Pectoral fin falcate, with a very small axillary lobe present. Pelvic fin slightly pointed, 7 rays, a small axillary scale present. Anal fin rays 3 simple, 9-10 branched rays, last one split to the base. Caudal fin with 10 + 9 principal rays, 9 + 8 branched. Scales in longitudinal series 24 + 1 or 25 + 1. No lateral line pores. Predorsal scales 10-11 (Ref. 38434).

Suriya : Kasat Article Support

Well…this article supposed to end at the above paragraph but with sometime left and some light that still shined. We stopped at U-long Stream which we had to pass on our way back. I first visited this medium size stream 5 years back with Chaiwut. That time, we found that the bio-diversity was so rich that I dubbed it “Miracle Stream”. For in U-long, we found 3 species of Garra sp., 5 species of Schistura, 4 species of Kryptotorax and many more fishes packed in one stretch of rapid no longer than 5 meters. But with the boom of tourism industry in this area, U-long which was one of the easily access stream, was obviously effected. Along the way, we saw many part of the forest along the stream being cut and transformed into resort, parking lot and orchard. We saw that some part of the stream was blocked by small dam to raise the water level for tourists to swim. We even saw drainage pipe from the resort’s kitchen that went directly into the U-long.

As expected, we found only a Garra, 2 species of Schistura, a Glyptothorax and a few other fishes. U-long was obviously affected by all these transformations. While we were very happy with our successful expedition to the most difficult and virgin rivers in the country, while we were happy to see all those fish living in one of the most pristine water in the world, there were so many other less fortunate body of water and fishes in the country. U-long was so miserable that I felt so bad seeing my miracle stream being turned into sewage canal before my eyes in so short a time.

When I started writing this report, I planned to end it with our happy and success story from Kasa and Suriya, but I obviously failed miserably.

siamensis.org & TWS team

Siamensis.org

Siamensis.org is a non-profit nature conservation group that has their main focus on fresh water fishes, reptiles and its surrounding of Thailand –formerly known as Siam. The group, which formed in 2001, comprises of people from diverse background, from hobby aquarist to professional Ichthyologist, from NGOs to Government officers. Our goal is to learn as much as possible about our nature and educate the public to create awareness and sense of belonging, so that long term conservation is possible.

Our achievements included the discovery of many species of faunas and floras formerly unknown to science, which bring about a better understanding of our nature. We also have a website that promotes the conservation awareness to the people. Please visit us at http://www.siamensis.org

Nonn Panitvong

About the Author

Nonn Panitvong is a founding member of Siamensis.org conservation group. He is an Editor in Chief of AQUA magazine, a leading Aquarium and Nature conservation magazine in Thailand. He is also an award winning photographer and writer who has his works published in may parts of the world. He is now working on his Ph.D. in Environmental Science at Kasetsart University. The Eco-journalist, as he loves to call himself, lives in Bangkok with his wife, a daughter and many fishes.

h.m.rm

Suriya and Kasat: Full Team Revisited Ep.VII

I understood that among many thousands of B. kubotai only a few Y. sidthimunki was found and I knew that it must be almost miracle for me to find one, I hope I could, but at last I failed. Never the less, this morning, I did found many other species of fish, Acanthocobitis rubidipinnis , Poropuntius scapanognatus, Syncrossus berdmoeri, Botia kubotai, Microrasbora kubotai, Bangana devdevi, Tetraodon cutcutia, Crossochilus burmanicus, Homaloptera modesta, Schistura maepaiensis, Hampala salweenensis, and Psilorhynchoides sp. to name a few. It was one of the nicest moments in my life and I would cherish it forever.

It was almost noon when I got back to the camp. The orchid team was back and they were very excited. They told me that up in the mountain, there were so many lady’s slippers, more than they ever hope or expected and there were some nice variation too. However, the most exciting part was that they found a small red Bulbophyllum orchid which they pretty sure was a previously unknown species to science. For them this was huge for orchid have, over the history, gained more attention than fish and majority of it has been discovered, and to find a new species of orchid is much more difficult than fish. This little Sun Bulbophyllum as we called it, has proved to us once again how virgin this part of the world was, especially to the naturalist.

After the conversation we went for another round of diving and did some under water photographing. This afternoon, we had a simple lunch and started to pack our stuffs and some fish that we would take back for further study. We did not forget to take group pictures with the BPP who had been such a nice host before we left the Suriya river.

The way back was even worst than when we came for we had to climbed up the steep limestone hill. Worse, we were running out of drinking water. At one point, I though I would as well just collapsed and laid there forever, then we helped each others, took turn carrying heavy stuffs and we finally made it back to the car.

That night we, once again, we camped at Lang-ka Ranger Station on the Kasa river, but we were so tired that nobody went out to explore the area further. After all, the conversation around the campfire was so interesting that I wouldn’t dare to leave even if I had enough energy to do so. It was a rare kind of conversation, pure naturalist talk.

In the morning, Tok and Ton took a walk down stream and found some locals Karen fishing with traditional bamboo stick rod. In the basket of the fishermen, they found a nice little Poropuntius It looked so interesting that Ton asked the fishermen for the fish which they kindly gave this one to him. The fish was in very bad condition. However, after a few months in my tank, it healed nicely and became one of my most favorite fish in the tank, for I have soft spot for Poropuntius in general. Until now, we couldn’t figured out what species it was but there is very high chance that it, too, was formerly unknown to science. with golden body and orange tail.

Then we spent another 7 hours on the dirt terrain before we finally reached the paved road, which concluded one of the most tired, fun, and successful expedition we ever took.

----- THE END -----

Suriya and Kasat: Full Team Revisited Ep.VI

The fence leaded me about 100 meters downstream from our camp. Here there was a small bamboo bridge about 5 meters above the water level. During the dry season the water was only a few feet deep. The BPP told me that during the rainy season the water raise so high that he can wash his cloth from this bridge. The bridge was obviously hand-made and very shaky. I slowly walked to the middle of the river and look further down stream. About 50 meters away, there was another small ridge and right after was a shallow pool, where there was a lot of leaf deposit. It was a prime spot for debris loving species but I didn’t have anything to catch them so I have to walk back to the camp first.

When I got back, the orchid team has left to the mountain, the Siamensis team were all in the river diving already. I grabbed a large dip net and walked back to the shallow pool. The technique was to drag the net all the way to the bottom, so that I get a little bit of sand, the leaf and hopefully the fish that live in it. Soon, I caught a small Amblyceps and 2 species of Pangio, a short one and a long one. Later the Amblyceps was ID by Mr.Chaiwut as A. caecutiens, which was a new record for Thailand. The short Pangio was a P. fusca and the long one was an un-described species!

After that I joined the team in skin diving the Suriya to take under water pictures of the fishes. I also have another fish left to see here, it was one of my most favorite fish in the whole world. In fact, we like it so much that it was featured in our group’s logo, the Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki. This fish was first discovered in the flood plain of Mae Klong river in Thailand. Then, after years of under pressure from collection for aquarium trade, their population was finished off by 3 hydrological dams up the river which totally cease the river to flood the plain. The fish has disappeared from our natural water. For 30 some years, there has been no confirmed report of this species in the natural water. Y. sidthimunki that still available in the trade were all from hormone induced spawning of the old wild stock. The news from the farms came out that each year, each generation; they get less and less fish due to in-breeding. They said if the trend continued we would see the last of Y. sidthimunki in our life time. This was a shocking news that sent us all very worry.

Then the Ataran river –known in Thailand as Kasa river- was being explored in Myanmar, which resulted in many new fish species. Some were so attractive that they became very popular in short period of time. One of which was B. kubotai. After being discovered in 2001 this species was being imported in to Thailand in large quantity each season, many thousands I would guess. Then with the shipment of B. kubotai some Y. sidthimunki was found. This was a great news for us all, to know that the little loach still exist in the wild that our in-bred captive stock can be rejuvenated with this new population.

So, if they exist in the Ataran, and all others fish in Ataran can be found in Suriya, then it is reasonable to expect the Y. sidthimunki here too. With an underwater camera in my hand, I was determined to be the first person to take picture of this fish under water.

Suriya and Kasat: Full Team Revisited Ep.V

By the time we got back to the camp, the night diving team has also got back from their first round. They have taken some nice shots of the Tetraodon cutcutia, Bangana cf. devdevi and the best of all Batasio dayi. They also found a little Leaf turtle (Cyclemys dentata) which we keep in our bucket to take photograph in the morning.

After the second round failed to yield any interesting species, we all got back to the camp fire and had some late supper of stir fried salted chicken and wild herbs rice soup that our local guides has cooked. This afternoon, on our way to the river, I saw our guide picked up many leafs of various species along the way but I was too tired to ask what they were for. The answer, I have found, was in the tasty soup.

I didn’t notice that Ton wasn’t joining the meal, until I saw him walked back from the river. In his left hand was a little dipping net and in his right a plastic bottle. He was grinning and I knew he has something in that bottle. When he finally arrived, he showed us two large loaches that he has caught from a shallow detritus covered sand beach at the other side of the river. I was able to recognize them right away that they were Acanthocobitis rubidipinnis, another fish on my “To-Find” list. This species too, was a new record for Thailand. After a while we were out again, this time into the jungle along the river searching for some reptile. This, too, has failed us for we found only a little snake that escaped into the thick jungle before we get a good look at it.

By 11 pm., we were back at the camp fire finishing off the soup. After a while, most have disappeared into their tents. They were not that tired but rather knocked out by the local alcohol drink made of rice. I, too, was about to get into mine when Ton asked if I want to go out fish watching again, which I agreed. Gui heard us and decided to join the quest. This time we walked up further and were greeted by various species of fishes but there was another species, my favorite I might add, that was on my To-Find list but so far failed to turn up. Akysis vespa, this cute little catfish was first imported to Thailand from Myanmar as a little undescribed Akysis. As a small fish nutz, I was very excited and instantly fail in love with them. Later, it was described in 2004 as Akysis vespa. They were reported from Ataran river –or Kasa river in Thai- which so far we found to have the same fish species as Suriya, so it was reasonable to expect them here too. Gui and Ton wondered across to the other side of the river, while I was searching at a shallow rapid where they were a lot of large rocks for the Akysis to perch on top. They do this very often, at night, in captivity and I expected them to do the same in the wild. I searched and searched and was finally found a small yellow fish, no bigger than 2 cm. perching on one of the large rock. I quickly took a closer look through the ripple surface, so close my hair drop into the water and my nose felt the coldness of the river.

“Vespaaaaaaaaaaaa!” I yelled. Gui! Ton! Vespa! I was so excited, that I forgot, I did not supposed to yell like that in the jungle. The two came running and finally the 3 of us was standing there enjoyed the sight of our country new record species! If there was anything to regret, none of us has a camera in our hand for we have to wade into the river many times and we didn’t want to risk our digital garget with the water. It was just too late and too far to walk back to get it at the camp. Lesson learnt “Don’t leave camp with out your camera”

Satisfied and too tired to continue, we decided to call it a night and I was just laid down before I was, once again, interrupt by Ton who had to yell every times he got excited. “Nonn! Gui! Hang Muan (Rolled tail)” He yelled. “What?” I got out of my tent, a little annoyed, and hope that whatever it was it better worth the annoy. Ton was at a little tree stump in the middle of our camp and pointing at a little gecko, a brown little gecko, which turned to be one of the highlight of the trip. It was a young Cyrtodactylus interdigitalis, one of the more unusual species of Gecko in our forest. This species, unlike many other Geckoes, rolled theirs tails in circle when rest hence its Thai nick-name Hang Muan. In my travels, I have seen this species only once and this was the second time. That night I had a good sleep but it got very cold around 3-4 AM., so I woke up to put 2 more t-shirts and went back to sleep. By 7.30 AM., there were some noises outside the tent already, so I decided to start my day. Upon, peeped out of the tent, I saw my sleeping bag put neatly right next to my tent. Obviously, one of the guides has carried this from the car but didn’t tell me about it.

After a good cup of coco from a hand-made bamboo cup, I grabbed my camera and fishing gear then walked up stream to a small water fall to take some pictures and if any luck catch some large fish. Above the waterfall, I found that the Cryptocoryne crispatula var. balansae and Downoi population were very healthy. The green of the Downoi and the red of the Cryp., besides it, gave a very nicely contrast image. I tried to fish in a deep pool after the water fall for a while but there were only 3 young Hampala which came out of a large driftwood to chase my bait but didn’t grab it. After a while, I gave up and decided to take a short cut back to the camp. This proved to be a stupid idea, for I soon lost my way and later found myself walking along the clearing next to the barbed wire fence of the BPP’s camp. In the movies I have watched, this is where they normally plant the land-mine. I walked very slowly trying to detect the abnormality of the soil surface and finally make it back to the river.

Suriya and Kasat: Full Team Revisited Ep.IV

By noon, we have reached the Durlu Ranger Station, the last station belonged to the Forestry Department on this road, any further north-west and they would be too close to the border and risk their life with our unsettle neighbor troop. Durlu stream was the first tributary of Suriya river we encountered and from here onward the area was protected by Border Petrol Police (BPP) whom we have contacted in advance and was waiting to take us to their base at the Suriya. Before we moved on, the orchid team has something to excite about for they found a little Phalanopsis parishii, one of the world rarest small orchid, growing on a small tree branch above the Durlu.

From Durlu, we drove up north for 1 more hours, then parked our trucks in the middle of the dry bamboo forest. Although the long and tired walk was waiting for me, I felt more sorry for the old Karen who will have to stay with our trucks, for the forest in that area was being invaded by a large army of cicadas which was constantly producing loud annoying noise, and worse peeing like rain from the canopy.

It was a short but very tired walk for we have to climb down several limestone hills. We finally reached the Suriya around 3.30 pm. and we wasted no time to get into the cool and clear water. At the very first touch, all the tiredness from the long traveling has gone and I was –once again- in my dream river.

The Hump-headed Glassfish –Palambassis pulchinella- seemed to be a good receptionist for a school appeared as soon as I reached the based of a small water fall. This cute fish was first discovered in the Myanmar side of the Kasa river –known officially as Ataran river and known by local as Geng-tor meaning the Golden River. It remained Myanmar citizen for sometimes before I discovered a Thai population in Suriya on my first trip. Then appeared a lone Syncrossus berdmorei from under a large driftwood. Swim a little further and I was greeted by a Polkadot loach, this fish has taken the aquarist world by storm a few years back. This species was –too- first discovered in the Myanmar part of the Kasa river and was later described by Morice Kottelat as Botia kubotai after Mr. Katsuma Kubota a Japanese fish dealer who based his operation in Thailand. It –too- remained a Myanmar citizen until I found this population in the Suriya on my first visit.

I climbed up this first small ledge of the fall and continue my diving. Here I found a large clump of Downoi –Pogostemon helferi a popular aquarium plant that I introduced to the world- was surrounded by a school of young Hampala salweenensis. This predatory large barb –discovered as recently as 1994- was very cute when young with pinkish body, red rim un-paired fins and 5 black striped. They, later, grow to be one of the most handsome fish in the water. Then at the next clump I found another species of barb, this time a small species reaching no more than 5 cm., the Puntius stoliczkanus. This barb, too, have red un-paired fins and some handsome black and golden body marking.

By the time I got back to the camp, the orchid team seems to have found a new local guide as one of the BPP was a very keen orchid enthusiast. They were opening a guide book and the young BPP was pointing at picture of the Concolor lady’s slipper orchid Paphiopedilum concolor. “There are thousands of them on top of the limestone hill.” He said pointing to a small hill, which our GPS said have a height of about 250 meters. “I saw them when I went up there to put up the flag.” He was referring to a small Thai flag right on top of the mountain, cross to the other side of the flag –for only a millimeter- and it would be Myanmar. Finally, he agreed to take the orchid team up the mountain to see the orchid in the morning.

That evening while sitting on one of the ledge in the middle of the water with Phet –one of the Orchid team, he pointed to me a small Schistura with strange pattern that was sitting on top of a decaying leaf. I grabbed my net and quickly scooped it up. To my surprise, after removing the leaf, in stead of Schistura, there was a Glyptothorax in my net. Where ever it was before being scooped this little catfish was later proved to be G. dorsalis another new record species for Thailand from this trip.

After dinner and the night fall, we were back in business again. This time, Tok who brought an underwater flashlight went out with Gui and Ton for the night dive. Me…I brought the underwater flashlight too, and 3 sets of fully charged battery, but forgot to take it with me from the car…..

So, I grabbed my normal one and walked along the ledge of the limestone fall. After a while, I found a small yellowish catfish foraging among the rocky substrate. Upon a closer look, I was able to ID it to the genus of Batasio but the species was beyond my knowledge and it was time I should call on a professional help. “Mheeeeeeeeeee” I yelled Chaiwut nickname. “There is a Batasio here.” It didn’t take long for Chaiwut to come running, while I tried hard to keep the little catfish in sight.

“Batasio dayi!” Chaiwut shouted with joy when he took a good look at the fish “New record for the country again.” He announced and then we high-fived. After a while, we found one more B. dayi and then something a little different that brought us a nice surprise. Batasio tigrinus! A species that we formerly though endemic to Mae Klong besin in Western Thailand, was found living together with the B. dayi in this Suriya river which was a part of Salween besin.

Suriya and Kasat: Full Team Revisited Ep.III

By 5 pm. most of our camp has been set up at the Lang-ka Ranger Station by the Kasa river. I and Chaiwut have been here before but all others team members have not. So we walked up the river to survey the area. By the time we came back, after about half an hour, all of the orchid team was standing in the middle of the river looking up at the large tree where more than 10 species of orchids covering the trunk like a luxuries fur coat. We joined them and learnt more about orchid than we did the whole life.

The last ray of light still penetrated the canopy. We dived the Kasa with our snorkel gears to find many species of fishes living in this pristine river. There were a lot of Spiny eel –Mastacenbelus armata-, Loaches were dominated by Schistura. There were at least 4 species of them, S. vinciguerrae, S. robertsi, S. aff. perculi and S. aff. Kohchangensis. The later 2, I and Chaiwut discovered since our last visit and the last has been confirmed to be an un-described species. The Cyprinids included Devario, Scaphiodonichthys, Tor and Neolissochilus. There were 2 species of Garra, the Redtail and the other greenish blown with mottled body. We havn’t yet figured out which species they were since Garra is a very large and complex genus.

It was getting dark. I looked up the sky passed through the Bamboo canopy to find no sign of star. The sky, it appeared, has been covered with thick layer of cloud. The Orchid team was better equipped to deal with rain as they have large tents, while ours were rather small. We had dinner while listening to the thunder storm rambling from a far. By the time we finished, the first drop of rain has hit my face. We decided to move our tent up into the Ranger head quarter. This sounded big and formal but it was in fact a medium size hut made of concrete foundation and bamboo structure, large enough to barely fit 5 of our small tents, a bed room and a food storage room for the lone ranger.

So much for our plan to survey the reptile in the area, 6 of us just sat there looked at each others and were entertained briefly by the appearance of a little Widow gecko –Hemidactylus garnotti. This species being name as such, because the female are parthenogenesis meaning it can laid viable eggs with out male. As far as we know, there has not been any record of a male in Thailand. This one was also a female.

By 10 pm. the rain has let up but the forest was still very wet. 4 members of the team, me included, decided to call it a day and get into our tents, while the other 2 –Gui and Ton- still have some energy left and decided to explore the nocturnal creatures, which later proved rather excited!

“Onn Onn Onn! (=Bamboo rat)” Before I went into my deep sleep, I heard Ton yelled from somewhere in the perimeter of the forest. I quickly grabbed my camera and flashlight to join them. After a few minutes all of us were surrounding the poor Bamboo rat who must have been surprise by its sudden stardom. We took a lot of pictures of the rat before let it got back on its way. Ton, who was the one who found the rat, didn’t get a single decent picture due to some malfunction of his camera, as he claimed it, although we all believed that it was more of the User Error.

Friday, April 8, 2006

“Onn! Where?” Our local guide asked us in the morning when we told him about the last night incident. “We took some pictures of it and let it go” I told him. He looked obviously upset and told us that there are not many foods that can beat the Bamboo rat-on-a-stick!

This morning we traveled up north, penetrated deeper into the jungle, where we would picked up a local Karen at Jakae village –an old Karen settlement in the middle of the sanctuary. We had to park our trucks in the middle of the jungle and climbed a small lime-stone ridge before we got to the Suriya river. This person, would take care of our trucks while we were at the Suriya.

Suriya and Kasat: Full Team Revisited Ep.II

The story begin

April, it supposed to be the dry season, the hottest and driest month of the year in Thailand. Yet, I was looking out of the office’s window seeing Bangkok skyline being blurred by heavy rain. With 6 days to go before our big expedition into one of the most difficult off-road terrain in Thailand, rain –as much as I love water- was not a welcomed guest.

After my brief visit –only one and a half hour- to Suriya river in early February and discovered 2 new records species –Botia kubotai, Parambassis pulchinella- and a new family –Phylorynchidae- for Thailand, I felt that the Suriya needed a more thorough investigation. So after 2 months, I planned another trip. This time the whole siamensis.org team was going to join in the quest, further more, another team of orchid craze people from Thailand Wilderness Study group was going to join with us on this expedition. It was fool prove, this was going to be fun…but it was raining. And the road will be just too dangerous, or even impossible to travel.

2 days later, I called our host in Kanchanaburi Prov., who said that it was still raining and that there were some fatally accident in the jungle. Our hope of going was slim. Then, came a forecast saying that the rain should stop within 2 days which –if true- will give sometimes for the road to be baked by the hot tropic sun before our schedule. Although our Weather Forecast Dept. has not been very accurate, this time they were right and our trip was going to happen.

Thursday, April 6, 2006: 8 PM., we found 6 of us cramped up into my little pick-up truck, heading to Sang Kla Buri District the land that lies along the Thai-Myanmar border. From there we would enter TungYai-Hua Kakhaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, a UNESCO’s World Heritage site, by a rented well equipped off-road truck. We would travel on the dirt road up north passed through one of the most virgin forest on the planet and at the end of the trip, Kasa and Suriya river were waiting. These 2 rivers were two of the most difficult rivers to access in Thailand, and have been very little studied.

April 7, 2006: The Orchid team joined us at the morning market where we filled up our coolers with foods and water, enough to feed 16 people for 4 days. By 9 AM., the wheels rolled and I found myself looking out the wind shield at the familiar sight, dense jungle on the low land, drier and bamboo populated highland and cool clear streams. In this first part of the trip we had to cross the Loki river –part of Mae Klong Besin- for 14 times, then the terrain would get very hilly and dangerous. On my last visit, my car almost failed from a road that was build by digging out a dirt cliff. This time at the exact same spot, our driver told us that a car failed into the cliff last week, nobody was seriously injured as the car hit a large tree and stop after a few meters down the hill. Then after about 100 meters, there was another spot where accident occurred, a Karen kid was dead here. These happened last week, when it was raining and the road turned very slippery with mud.

By 4 pm. we have been traveled for 7 hours and managed to cover about 70 Km. The first sight of Kasa river was a welcome relieve. As our local driver could drive much faster than the 3 others cars from Orchid team, we stopped in the middle of the river where the water was about 50 cm. deep to wait for them. This part of Kasa river was about 30 meters wide and on our left was a small water fall.

“Giant Red-tailed loach!” Ton –youngest Siamensis.org member- shouted, looking out the windows into the river. “Uh! Where?” Chaiwut –our in-house Ichthyologist- asked him. “There there!” Ton pointed into the river where I saw 2 fish of about 12 cm. long foraging at the bottom of the graveled river. They were big loaches if they were loaches. “No, they are not loach, they are Garra!” Chaiwut said and I almost jumped into the water to take a closer look at them. This fish, we later dubbed “Garra sp. Redtail”, was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful Garra species in the world and it is most probably formerly unknown to science. This was the first of many more excitements this trip going to bring to us.

Suriya and Kasat: Full Team Revisited Ep.I

Story By: Nonn Panitvong
Images By: h.m.rm

Abstract

Suriya River (known in Myanmar as Hanthayaw) and Kasa River (Known in Myanmar as Ataran) originated in Thailand in the area of TungYai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary which is a UNESCO’s World Heritage site. The sanctuary located in the west of Thailand along the border with Myanmar. It is a part of the largest forest in mainland South East Asia. The Western Forest Complex–as it is known in Thailand- is the last home of many rare and endangered species such as the Asian Wild Buffalo(Bubalus bubalis).

The 2 rivers flowed from Thailand up north then cross the border into Myanmar, where it later joined with the Salween river just before it emptied into the Andaman sea. As a result, the fish fauna in these 2 rivers comprised mainly of the fish of Salween river besin. Others groups of fish are those found in Tenasserim river besin of Southern Myanmar and Thailand. It is also very interesting –although not unexpected given their proximity- to note that these 2 rivers also share some fish species from the Mae Klong river besin of western Thailand. However, there are some species of fishes that –so far- can only be found in Suriya and Kasa rivers such as Botia kubotai, Parambassis pulcinella, and Akysis vespa.

Although the part of these 2 rivers in Myanmar has –to a certain extend- been investigated and studied, the head water part in Thailand which located in deep forest remained un-studied until Nonn Panitvong and Chaiwut Krudpan visited the Kasa river in 2003 and 2004. The Suriya river was later visited by Nonn Panitvong in February 2006 and once again by Siamensis.org team in April 2006.

Of the 4 trips mentioned, we recorded 7 orders, 16 families and 51 species of fishes, of which one family and 6 species are new records for Thailand and most likely 9 species formerly un-known to science. Given that there are many species of fishes currently known only from these 2 rivers, we believe that further thorough investigation should yield more species formerly un-known to science world. (List of all the species can be found at the end of this article)

Our study has shown, once again, that Salween river besin, as a whole system, has very diverse fish fauna. So far, it is the only large river system in mainland South East Asia that has not been managed and/or regulated by human in large scale. We proposed that it should remain so until impact of our action to the home of these faunas and floras, to the livelihood of native people and economic value of the project are well studied, that all the mistakes we –Homo sapiens- have made in many water regulation projects have been put into account.

Siamensis.org team,
April 2006