Thai army rangers rescued after 6 days cut off in jungle
The army on Wednesday released a video of the search and rescue operation by the Third Aviation Battalion, which recovered the 19 frontline rangers on Tuesday.
According to the army, the rangers had set out on July 23 with orders to verify a Cambodian BM-21 artillery position. The following day, Thai and Cambodian forces began trading fire and the rangers' unit lost contact with them.
Fighting over the following five days made mounting a rescue operation highly risky, but on Tuesday after the ceasefire was announced, a Bell 212 helicopter was able to conduct three sorties to locate and evacuate all 19 soldiers.
The army said the men where exhausted, lightly injured and had survived nearly six days without support. Without an airlift, it would have taken days more to walk out through difficult terrain and unpredictable weather.
The mission received widespread public praise for the bravery and sacrifice of the troops. The 2nd Army Region Command also acknowledged the joint efforts of the military, border police, medical teams and volunteers protecting the nation.
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Bangkok Post
2 days ago
- Bangkok Post
Strange choices of pets in Thailand
There was a report in last Monday's Post that lions are becoming popular pets in Thailand. It is believed there are about 500 captive lions mainly in Thailand's zoos, breeding farms and petting cafes, but more disturbingly, some in private homes. It doesn't need spelling out why this is not a good idea. These magnificent beasts are not designed to be pets or put in cages but should be running around free in the savannah of their homeland. Also, cuddly though they might look they can quickly transform into dangerous creatures if upset by humans. It highlights the odd choices of pets by some people. A couple of years ago Thailand banned the import of green iguanas as these lizards were damaging the environment. Iguanas had been growing in popularity as a pet but many escaped and were spotted on the loose, particularly in the Lop Buri area. Quite why anyone would want to have a pet iguana I have no idea. They are not exactly cuddly. Admittedly they have an advantage over dogs in that don't bark, although they apparently make a sort of asthmatic wheezing sound when agitated. Readers may also recall that some years ago there was a brief fad in this country for pet piranhas. However, all it took was a couple of owners being bitten by the fish to put an end to that nonsense. Pity the piggies There was a brief craze in Thailand a decade ago when it became fashionable to have tiny pigs as pets. Many of these cute-looking porkers were bought at Chatuchat market where vendors assured gullible customers the piggies would stay in their diminutive size forever. Of course they didn't and within a year these lovely little piglets had transformed into 150kg lumps of blubber, not exactly the cute pet they had in mind for running about in their townhouse. The pet pigs quickly lost their novelty appeal and many were either abandoned or sold by their owners, eventually ending up on dinner plates. British statesman Winston Churchill was known to nurture a soft spot for pigs. He once observed: "I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals." Python pal A Thai actress made headlines in the 1990s when it was revealed she shared her bed every night with her pet python, who sadly wasn't called Monty. She was photographed sitting on the bed lovingly stroking the reptile. The actress said the python always behaved itself and never wet the bed. Her boyfriend wasn't too impressed, however, and was said to be left looking for a "less complicated" relationship that didn't involve slithery reptiles. Lenny the Lion Back to the lions. When I was a kid there was a children's programme on the BBC called The Lenny the Lion Show featuring ventriloquist Terry Hall with his puppet lion Lenny. Hall was skilled at this difficult art and was the first in his profession to use an animal as his dummy. Lenny was a cheerful looking lion made of old fox fur and with a golf ball for a nose. Lenny also had a slight lisp and developed a popular catchphrase "Aw! Don't embawass me", as he lifted his paw and sighed. Gottle o' geer Speaking of Lenny got me thinking about other TV ventriloquists (vents) that were around when I was a kid. My favourite was Arthur Worsely who was a familiar figure in the 1960s. He possessed a dry sense of humour and would retain a deadpan expression throughout the show while suffering non-stop verbal abuse from his dummy Charlie Brown. You wouldn't see Worsely's lips moving despite the dummy taunting him with "I bet you can't say 'bottle of beer'", or "I can see your lips moving, yes they're moving". Part of the act featured Charlie listing a host of place-names beginning with "M" a letter that is hugely difficult for vents. So Worsley would battle his way through names like Manchester, Morecambe and Macclesfield before concluding with "and Melton Mowbray" with just a hint of a smile. Face for radio One of the strangest ventriloquist success stories was that of Peter Brough and his schoolboy dummy Archie Andrews. What made it so bizarre was that Brough performed on the radio which made his skills as a vent totally redundant. When Brough did occasionally appear on television you could see his lips moving but it didn't really matter because Archie had already become a celebrity in his own right. The Educating Archie radio show ran throughout the 1950s. Things did not always go smoothly for Archie however as he was sometimes left behind in the luggage rack on train journeys. On one occasion while Brough was sitting in the refreshment car the carriage in which he had left Archie was removed from the train and taken off to another city. Brough had to perform that night without the dummy, which must have been quite a challenge. Snarling newshounds My thanks to readers who bravely submitted their own collective nouns for journalists. The most polite offering by far was a "jury". Less flattering but perhaps more accurate was a "snarl" and another offering was a "fakery". Other contributions included a "gaggle" and a "spin", while someone suggested "pit", as in vipers. Well, it takes all sorts.
Bangkok Post
5 days ago
- Bangkok Post
Thai army rangers rescued after 6 days cut off in jungle
NAKHON RATCHASIMA - Nineteen army rangers on a reconnaissance mission spent six days cut off in deep jungle before being successfully rescued, the Royal Thai Army has revealed. The army on Wednesday released a video of the search and rescue operation by the Third Aviation Battalion, which recovered the 19 frontline rangers on Tuesday. According to the army, the rangers had set out on July 23 with orders to verify a Cambodian BM-21 artillery position. The following day, Thai and Cambodian forces began trading fire and the rangers' unit lost contact with them. Fighting over the following five days made mounting a rescue operation highly risky, but on Tuesday after the ceasefire was announced, a Bell 212 helicopter was able to conduct three sorties to locate and evacuate all 19 soldiers. The army said the men where exhausted, lightly injured and had survived nearly six days without support. Without an airlift, it would have taken days more to walk out through difficult terrain and unpredictable weather. The mission received widespread public praise for the bravery and sacrifice of the troops. The 2nd Army Region Command also acknowledged the joint efforts of the military, border police, medical teams and volunteers protecting the nation.
Bangkok Post
7 days ago
- Bangkok Post
'Absolute madness': Thailand's pet lion problem
CHIANG MAI — Behind a car repair business on a nondescript Thai street are the cherished pets of a rising TikTok animal influencer: two lions and a 200-kilogramme lion-tiger hybrid called "Big George." Lion ownership is legal in Thailand, and Tharnuwarht Plengkemratch is an enthusiastic advocate, posting updates on his feline companions to nearly three million followers. "They're playful and affectionate, just like dogs or cats," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP) from inside their cage complex at his home in the northern city of Chiang Mai. Thailand's captive lion population has exploded in recent years, with nearly 500 registered in zoos, breeding farms, petting cafes and homes. Experts warn the trend endangers animals and humans, stretches authorities and likely fuels illicit trade domestically and abroad. "It's absolute madness," said Tom Taylor, chief operating officer of conservation group Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand. "It's terrifying to imagine, if the laws aren't changed, what the situation is going to be in 10 years." The boom is fuelled by social media, where owners like Mr Tharnuwarht post light-hearted content and glamour shots with lions. "I wanted to show people... that lions can actually bond well with humans," he said, insisting he plays regularly with his pets. He entered Big George's enclosure tentatively though, spending just a few minutes being batted by the tawny striped liger's hefty paws before retreating behind a fence. Since 2022, Thai law has required owners to register and microchip lions, and inform authorities before moving them. But there are no breeding caps, few enclosure or welfare requirements, and no controls on liger or tigon hybrids. Births of protected native species like tigers must be reported within 24 hours. Lion owners have 60 days. "That is a huge window," said Taylor. "What could be done with a litter of cubs in those 60 days? Anything." Illicit trade Taylor and his colleagues have tracked the rise in lion ownership with on-site visits and by trawling social media. They recorded around 130 in 2018, and nearly 450 by 2024. But nearly 350 more lions they encountered were "lost to follow-up" after their whereabouts could not be confirmed for a year. That could indicate unreported deaths, an animal removed from display or "worst-case scenarios", said Taylor. "We have interviewed traders (in the region) who have given us prices for live and dead lions and have told us they can take them over the border." As a vulnerable species, lions and their parts can only be sold internationally with so-called Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) permits. But there is circumstantial evidence of illicit trade, several experts told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid angering authorities. Media reports and social media have documented lions, including cubs, in Cambodia multiple times in recent years, though Cites shows no registered imports since 2003. There is also growing evidence that captive lion numbers in Laos exceed Cites import licences. In Thailand, meanwhile, imports of lion parts like bones, skins and teeth have dropped in recent years, though demand remains, raising questions about how parts are now being sourced. Thai trader Pathamawadee Janpithak started in the crocodile business, but pivoted to lions as prices for the reptiles declined. "It gradually became a full-fledged business that I couldn't step away from," the gregarious 32-year-old told AFP in front of a row of caged cubs. She sells one-month-olds for around 500,000 baht (US$15,500), down from a peak of 800,000 baht as breeding operations like hers increase supply. Captive lions are generally fed around two kilogrammes (4.4 pounds) of chicken carcasses a day, and can produce litters of two to six cubs, once or twice a year. Ms Pathamawadee's three facilities house around 80 lions, from a stately full-maned nine-year-old to a sickly pair of eight-day-olds being bottle-fed around the clock. They are white because of a genetic mutation, and the smaller pool of white lions means inbreeding and sickness are common. Sometimes wrongly considered a "threatened" subspecies, they are popular in Thailand, but a month-old white cub being reared alongside the newborns has been sick almost since birth. It has attracted no buyers so far and will be unbreedable, Pathamawadee said. She lamented the increasing difficulty of finding buyers willing to comply with ownership rules. "In the past, people could just put down money and walk away with a lion... Everything has become more complicated." Legal review Ms Pathamawadee sells around half of the 90 cubs she breeds each year, often to other breeders, who are increasingly opening "lion cafes" where customers pose with and pet young lions. Outside Chiang Mai, a handler roused a cub from a nap to play with a group of squealing Chinese tourists. Staff let AFP film the interaction, but like all lion cafes contacted, declined interviews. Pathamawadee no longer sells to cafes, which tend to offload cubs within weeks as they grow. She said several were returned to her traumatised and no longer suitable for breeding. The growing lion population is a problem for Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP), admitted wildlife protection director Sadudee Punpugdee. "But private ownership has existed for a long time... so we're taking a gradual approach," he told AFP. That includes limiting lion imports so breeders are forced to rely on the domestic population. "With inbreeding on the rise, the quality of the lions is also declining and we believe that demand will decrease as a result," Mr Sadudee said. Already stretched authorities face difficult choices on enforcing regulations, as confiscated animals become their responsibility, said Penthai Siriwat, illegal wildlife trade specialist at WWF Thailand. "There is a great deal of deliberation before intervening... considering the substantial costs," she told AFP. Owners like Tharnuwarht often evoke conservation to justify their pets, but Thailand's captive lions will never live in the wild. Two-year-olds Khanom and Khanun live in a DNP sanctuary after being confiscated from a cafe and private owner over improper paperwork. They could survive another decade or more, and require specialised keepers, food and care. Sanctuary chief vet Natanon Panpeth treads carefully while discussing the lion trade, warning only that the "well-being of the animals should always come first". Big cat ownership has been banned in the United States (US) and United Arab Emirates (UAE) in recent years, and Thailand's wildlife rules are soon up for review. Mr Sadudee is hopeful some provisions may be tightened, though a ban is unlikely for now. He has his own advice for would-be owners: "Wild animals belong in the wild. There are plenty of other animals we can keep as pets."
