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At first glance the banteng may look like typical cattle, but it's not. It's actually a critically endangered species and its ancestors diverged from the line that would lead on to the aurochs, the ancestors of taurine cattle around 800,000 years ago. While the aurochs lineage continued evolving across the forests of Eurasia, the banteng lineage, their cousins, were evolving in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia and surrounding islands. They're around the same size as your typical cattle, but they live in very different social structures. Smaller herds, reaching upwards of 20 to 40 members on the larger end. There's one male surrounded by lots of females. And the species is extremely sexually dimorphic. In fact, when they were first described, the males and females weren't recognized as belonging to the same at all. Males are dark, females are a reddish color, and they both have bright white patches on their butts with white stockings. These traits may help herds stay together in the dark forests. Tropical forests and their ability, nocturnal lifestyle when needed, may have helped them persist alongside humans longer than their wild aurochs cousins. Their safety is disappearing. In just the last two decades, the wild banteng population has dropped more than 80%, leading to them getting added to the critically endangered list in 2024. In Cambodia, for example, habitat fragmentation. An important keystone, but the population is in danger of a silent collapse. The kind that happens when populations are too fragmented from each other, occupying isolated forest patches alongside poachers. But a conservation group called Rising Phoenix is doing something about it. And in 2024, a small breeding population living in a forest that had at one time been a wildlife corridor and then it was deforested. They found a small population. Unfortunately, evidence at the site made it clear poachers had found them first, but this allowed them to try that had never been done in Cambodia before. The location of this herd was around 30 kilometers or 18 miles south of Siem Pang, which is a wildlife sanctuary. Been working to add animals back to. Use drones to monitor and a helicopter to funnel them truck. And within four, 16 banteng were then taken to the wildlife sanctuary, a region that had been missing their keystone ungulates. Save the population. 2 calves have been born since. This is how species go extinct, left behind and taken over by deforestation and poaching. The work of Rising Phoenix proves we can save these populations. But helicopters, personnel and months of monitoring and planning, that's not cheap. Effective conservation takes plan. It takes funding. And that's where the Colossal Foundation comes in. The Colossal Foundation's Species Reintroduction Fund puts $250,000 behind the most critical reintroduction projects on the planet, every year. Launched in 2025, in partnership with Re:wild, the fund commits $250,000 annually to supporting reintroduction projects around the world, partnering with local groups to help supercharge their reintroduction efforts. This year, that funding is supporting seven species across seven completely different ecosystems and conservation challenges. From banteng in Cambodia's forest to sea stars in the Pacific Northwest. If you want to learn more, check my Colossal playlist. Stay up to date with all of this stuff as it is announced. Let me know if there is a specific animal from the reintroduction me to cover and make sure to go follow Colossal's page so you can stay up to date with all of this stuff as it is announced.