The Bulwer’s Petrel, a seabird usually seen far out in the open sea, has been first registered in Cambodia, according to BirdLife International Cambodia Programme.
“[…], this individual was documented by our team at Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary in Rattanakiri in the evening of Oct. 17, 2021, more than two hundred kilometres away from the nearest coast, and probably represents the first ever record of this species in Cambodia,” said the biodiversity conservation organisation in a statement released this afternoon.
“We suspect that typhoon ‘Kompasu’ which is moving across southern China into northern Indochina may have blown this individual off course, and sent it a long way inland,” it added.
Bulwer’s Petrels are very rare in Southeast Asian waters and have only been recorded on a handful of occasions in the seas around mainland Southeast Asia, said the statement, stressing that the seabird is known to breed in small islands in the East China Sea and the West Pacific, including at several locations in southern Japan’s Ryukyu islands.
Source: Agency Kampuchea Press