The Animal Kingdom

One big advantage of living and working in the rural north west of Cambodia is that I’m right in the middle of beautiful countryside, which I share with all sorts of interesting creatures!

Normally I’m a dog-lover, but here they must be my least favourite animal - menacing packs who love snarling at nervous foreigners. I’ve been out on my bike a fair bit now, but have been put off running for fear of being bitten. Worse still, they bark and howl (proper, full moon wolf-wailing) long into the night, and early the next morning – bring your earplugs. Apparently the locals are immune to this, or (I have heard) put up with it as dogs scare off ghosts. Personally I’d prefer a few ghoolies to that racket.

My favourite animals are cows and particularly water buffalo. Paddy fields are graced with their presence, and as beasts of burden the buffalo do much of the ploughing, though noisier and more prosaic ‘machine cows’ (mini-tractors) are now appearing. Water buffalo are big animals with sharp horns - I cycled thorough a herd the other evening and seriously wobbled. They sometimes get freaked out by cars and the like – we’ve seen a couple stampeding along the road, and you wouldn’t want to be in their way - but for the most part they are a stately and serene part of the countryside.

Water is a crucial part of Cambodia’s landscape, and there is plenty of aquatic life to enjoy. There are even dolphins in the Mekong river at Kratie – though the nearest I’ve seen is the 2010 Dolphin Calendar, which is light on water life and more focussed on hunky ‘Dophin Men’. I assume my invite was lost in the non-existent postal system. Fish have a pretty bad time as Cambodians spend a lot of time trying to catch and eat them, though the smart ones – and the turtles – hang out near temples, where they enjoy some kind of protection.

Which makes me wonder about Cambodians’ relationship with animals. It seems to be close, living mainly in rural villages, often housing chickens, cows and pigs under their stilt-houses. And it also seems to be practical – with the exception of a few kittens and puppies, animals are there to be used not petted.

But I don’t get it: in theory, nearly everyone here is Buddhist, so believe that when we die we are reincarnated as another creature. So clearly we're not going to kill and eat other creatures, as they could be our friends or relatives. Sadly, this logic is honoured more in the breach than the observance, with Khmers tucking into all manner of creatures without apparent concern for their immortal souls.

Whilst I find this all rather confusing (I resist saying hypocritical, for now at least), I guess it’s no more inconsistent than my fellow countrymen who claim to love animals but find it ok to kill and eat them (or rather get others to do the killing). Cambodians are at least consistent – they happily slaughter and feast upon cows, pigs and chickens like many Western folk, but also kill and eat horses, dogs and rats, whilst we seem to think this is somehow different – how exactly?

Ok, soapbox moment over – let’s talk about creepy-crawlies! My morning toast was delayed last week for repatriation of a giant beetle, and there are some lovely butterflies, which I think shows that despite all the plastic bag burning the air quality is pretty good. I've walked to work across the temple island with a long, bright green serpent, and my nurse colleague Alison and I also found a snake in the hospital meeting room. I am hoping word of this will discourage the cleaners from sleeping on the boardroom table.

I suppose mosquitoes come under the creepy-crawly category too – and you can forget all that bleeding-hearted veggie talk above, these bastards are to be splatted with extreme prejudice. In my (self) defence, they are a direct threat to me (night ones with Malaria, day ones with Dengue – and all of them with annoying buzzing and infuriatingly itchy bites). I’ve therefore closed their favourite local breeding ground (the ‘gurney’ in my bathroom, now safely drained). The good old lizards (I think strictly geckos) also do a good job on mozzie control, though they do make a disturbing squeaky sound at night, especially when trodden on.

Finally, my animals of the moment – a happy couple of birds (species to be ascertained) have taken up residence on my bedroom windowsill. Maybe I should have taken action when I first saw twigs arrive, but now there’s a fully-formed nest I haven’t the heart to evict them. It will be fun to see a new household emerge – I just hope that, as with some young families, they don't rival the dogs for late night and early morning wailing.