ARMED only with a few ageing shotguns and the sharpened instincts of the hunter, jittery rangers stalk gunmen hidden within the jungle foliage of Asia's most deadly wildlife battlefield.
Five forest defenders have given their lives for the Asian elephant and other vanishing species at Huay Kra Kaeng on the Thai-Burmese border, ambushed by poachers locked into a lucrative trade in ivory and hides.
Fitted out like small armies, with assault rifles and sophisticated radios, the poachers use brutal iron traps, electrified fences and poison to snare rare animals protected for four decades by guerilla fighting in nearby Burma.
''We have only a handful of rangers to cover 1.6 million square rai (about 260 hectares) of forest, and there are thousands of trails that can be used by poachers. It is a hopeless battle,'' said chief warden Chatchawal Pitdamkham.
Huay Kra Kaeng, part of the largest tract of dry tropical forest in Southeast Asia, shelters hundreds of vanishing animals and birds reprieved until now by the region's inaccessibility and the lingering conflict between Burma and ethnic minorities.
Most at risk is the Asian elephant, slaughtered for ivory and leather shops to replace African supplies blocked by the 1990 worldwide ban on ivory sales.
Poachers are operating on both sides of the Burmese border and in neighbouring Laos and Cambodia, threatening Asia's dwindling herd of 25,000 native elephants.