lesser adjutant

The Lesser Adjutant is a large wading bird from the stork family. They stand at about 110 cm tall and have an impressive wingspan of 210 cm. They can often be seen circling in the thermals above the lake area at Phnom Tamao. They retract their necks in flight in a similar way to the heron. They like to eat frogs, insects, lizards, rodents, baby crocs as well as carrion. They adapted their bald heads and necks (like vultures) due to their liking for carrion - it's easier to keep your head clean after dipping it inside a rotting carcass if it has no feathers. Despite their wide range, their numbers are estimated to be less than 5000 - which puts their rating as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Habitat loss, water pollution, loss of food sources, hunting and egg collection are all factors in their decline.

Greater Adjutant.

The bigger cousins of the Lesser Adjutants, the Greater Adjutants stand at 150 cm tall and sport a wingspan of 250 cm. Apart from the size difference, they can further be distinguished by their large Gular Pouch hanging from their throats. This unattractive feature currently has no known biological function. The Greater Adjutant is a known scavenger and can often be found at rubbish dumps or stealing a hard earned meal from another bird. They have been named one of the fifty rarest birds in the world and the IUCN has them rated as Endangered with a population estimated at 800 individuals. 450 of these have been counted in India and a further 100 on the Tonle Sap here in Cambodia.
PTWRC has a breeding program in place however it would be wonderful to see additional funding for this project. PTWRC hopes to place their captive population into their own solitary water bird aviary to further the success of this project which aims to save this species from the brink of extinction. This could be achieved with US$12,000 however this funding is simply not forthcoming. The only ICUN rating left after endangered is extinct in the wild before it is classified as extinct entirely.