Hornbill Conservation in Thailand

hornbills are the quintessence of all that is rare, vital and mysterious in tropical forests from Africa to Asia. Their life is interwoven with the woodland which they help to regenerate by spreading seeds. When forests are fragmented, the hornbills too are lost. Thailand has 13 of Asia’s 31 species of hornbill; one may be almost extinct, five are endangered, four are threatened and three vulnerable. A third of the forest in which hornbills dwell has fallen.
Each hornbill pair seeks out a suitable hollow – 15 to 40 metres above the ground in the trunk or branch of a Neobalanocarpus, Dipterocarpus or Syzygium tree – in which to raise a single chick. When a suitable cavity is found, the female walls herself in, using mud supplied by her mate and regurgitated food, to hatch and rear her chick. The male feeds them for the next three months and, if he fails, both mother and chick may perish. The birds consume up to 80 different kinds of fruit, scattering the seeds over many hectares of forest. With other seed-distributing animals such as monkeys now scarce, the hornbill has become pivotal in maintaining the integrity of the forest. But the birds rarely spread the seeds of the trees in which they nest: if these disappear, the hornbills too will vanish – and the trees and plants they help propagate will soon follow.However.The hornbill programme is taking place against a violent background: the threat of terrorism from agitators hiding in the villages and forest, and the government’s counter-action. A mobile learning centre and trained educators is spreading word of the project to other villages and communities in the south of Thailand, while ex-poachers teach current poachers that a safer future for them and their families lies in regeneration rather than destruction and extermination. And researchers continue to document key relationships in the rain forest between plants, birds and animals.
In conclusion,the great hornbill plays a vital role in the Budo Mountian o Thailand.

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