More Than 1,000 New Species Discovered in Mekong Basin in Past Decade

At least 1,068 new species — including a spider with a 12-inch leg span, a striped rabbit, and a cyanide-producing, hot-pink millipede — have been discovered in the Mekong River basin since 1997, highlighting the need to protect the rich diversity of the Southeast Asian region, according to a report by the conservation group WWF. The report, “First Contact in the Greater Mekong,” said that scientists have recently discovered 519 new species of plants, 279 fish, 88 frogs, 88 spiders, 46 lizards, 22 snakes, 15 mammals, 4 birds, 4 turtles, 2 salamanders, and a toad in the little-explored regions of the Mekong basin, which encompass parts of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Yunnan province in China. WWF said most of the species were discovered in remote regions, but that some were found in towns and villages, including a Laotian rock rat on sale at a local market and a Siamese Peninsula pit viper crawling in the rafters of a restaurant in a Thai national park. “The region is like what I read about as a child in the stories of Charles Darwin,” said one scientist.