More than 1,000 animals, including a number of rare and critically endangered species, were seized and rescued from poachers across Cambodia in the past three months, Wildlife Alliance (WA) said yesterday.

Between August and October, the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team (WRRT), a joint effort of the WA and the Forestry Administration, “conducted 159 operations, rescuing 1,077 animals from the illegal wildlife trade, confiscating 370 kilograms of wildlife parts and levied $9,790 in fines,” according to the NGO’s website.

A baby Sunda pangolin in the Cardamom Mountains was the most recent animal to be rescued in that period.

According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List, the world’s most comprehensive inventory of biological species’ conservation status, the Sunda pangolin is critically endangered and in rapid decline due to hunting for its meat and scales.

“In a number of reserves in the Cardamom Mountains, this species is present but populations are declining,” IUCN’s website says.