rainforests <\/p>\n
Nidhi Subbaraman NBC News <\/p>\n
Sep. 26, 2013 at 2:15 PM ET <\/p>\n
Anthony Lynam <\/p>\n
The Chiew Lam Reservoir is surrounded by rainforest, and dotted with more than a hundred forested islands. <\/p>\n
In 1987, the Thai government finished flooding 65 square miles of rainforest to feed a hydroelectric dam. The wide blanket of jungle, chock-full of small mammals, became an inland archipelago comprising more than a hundred tiny islands. Stranded, the smallest of the furry critters are now dying off. All but one, that is: The hardy Malayan field rat. <\/p>\n
This isn't just a problem in Thailand, say researchers. Jungle tracts across the world are being carved into isolated patches, separated by roads or agriculture. The rapid elimination of the island mammals in the Chiew Lam Reservoir foretells the fate of forests elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\"We observed the annihilation of an entire group of animals all native small animals,\" Luke Gibson, a graduate student at the National University of Singapore told NBC News, adding that the \"dramatic results are a warning\" for other similarly fragmented landscapes. \"It seems really bleak for these small forest fragments,\" he said. <\/p>\n
Luke Gibson <\/p>\n
This 'moonrat' is among the last of a dwindling population of small mammals still living on the islands of the Chiew Lake Reservoir. <\/p>\n
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Man-made jungle islands spell extinction for the smallest critters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" rainforests Nidhi Subbaraman NBC News Sep. 26, 2013 at 2:15 PM ET Anthony Lynam The Chiew Lam Reservoir is surrounded by rainforest, and dotted with more than a hundred forested islands Continue reading