Three hundred and fifty new plant and animal species have been discovered in the Himalayas. A report by the World Wide Fund for Nature presents a monkey, a flying frog and the smallest deer known to man. At the same time the WWF is sounding the alarm: while many new species have been discovered, their habitat is under threat from all sides.

The report is based on scientific research carried out over the past 10 years, mostly by the Indian Nature Conservation Foundation in the Eastern Himalayas. Hundreds of volunteers and scientists combed the inhospitable and until recently forbidden borderland in Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Tibet and found 244 species of plant, 16 amphibians, 16 reptiles, 14 fish, 2 birds, 2 mammals and at least 60 invertebrates.

But are these all new species? No, they are not, replies WWF spokesman Lot Folgering, admitting that this was maybe not the most fortunate choice of headline for the press release:

"People shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that these are new additions to the animal kingdom. They already existed, of course, it's just that now we actually know what lives in this particular region. And they include remarkable discoveries, believe me. I wouldn't want to take away from that for a second."

And indeed, it's true. A new monkey and a miniature deer reminiscent of Bambi are wonderful finds, not least for the WWF's coffers. The timing of the publication is also far from coincidental. Professor Herbert Prins, ecologist at Wageningen University explains that this is the ideal time of year for fundraising. "That's common knowledge among all conservation organisations."

Cute and cuddly
But Professor Prins is quick to add that the WWF is perfectly justified in employing the smartest strategy it can. Without funding, its activities would grind to a halt. He sees it as only logical that the organisation's press release puts far less emphasis on the less "cute and cuddly" creatures such as reptiles, fish and insects, even though these finds are just as interesting.

But is 350 new discoveries over the course of a decade really that impressive a score? Wouldn't research in the Amazon have been more productive? Isn't 350 species in the Himalayas more or less to be expected, especially given that it's such a huge area where hardly any previous research had been carried out? "Yes and no," is Herbert Prins's answer:

"You could argue that this is to be expected, but then again it's important to realise that the entire area consists almost entirely of rugged mountains and glaciers. In the mountains at high altitude, you'd therefore expect to find very few species and certainly not new species. And in farming areas, you would also expect to find very few species. So in the relatively small area that remains, a result of 350 species is therefore quite remarkable."

Professor Prins, no stranger to research in the Himalayas himself, gives the credit for this striking result to the Indian researchers and volunteers of the Nature Conservation Foundation, and not the WWF which has now launched the report.

Human pressure
It is also an indisputable fact that the habitats of the Eastern Himalayas are under threat. Population growth, urbanisation and large-scale agriculture are on the rise. Climate change is also having an undeniable effect, not least because the region's famous glaciers are melting.

Will the warmer climate create new opportunities for life, giving rise to yet more new species in the Himalayas? Will new additions enrich the biotope, making life there more varied? It's a nice idea, reckons Herbert Prins, but even if that were the case, more and more of the region is being populated by humans. Whatever effect the climate has, the natural world of the Eastern Himalayas will remain under threat.