Driving through southern Laos with a Lao friend a few years ago we came across a snake slowly slithering its way across the road. We stopped for a look and a moment later a group of villag­ers walked over the hill about 150m in front of us, and a man on a bike pedalled over the crest about 200m behind us. Then they saw the snake...

Immediately several members of the group dropped what they were carrying and started bolting towards the snake. But this race was always going to be won by the guy pedalling frantically down the slope. A few seconds later he glided past and ran over the snake before calmly dismounting and strolling up to the stunned serpent. He grabbed it by the tail and swung it into the road, and a second later it was dead. The family ahead stopped running with a groan of disappointment and the guy stood holding up the snake, grinning with self-satis­faction. This is very special food,' he said, before heading home to grill it for lunch with his cousin.

Back in the car my friend, who was a little disappointed it wasn't him heading off to the grill, explained that most snakes were delicious (you guessed it; they taste a bit like chicken). 'Yes and there are lots of wild animals in these forests that the villagers like to eating,' he added. While the number of rural people who can afford to buy domestically raised meat is rising, many still depend on wildlife they catch themselves for protein. And when you get off the main routes you'll see people selling and eating deer, wild pigs, squirrels, civets, monitor lizards, jungle fowl/ pheasants, dholes (wild dogs), rats and just about any bird they can bring down with a slingshot or catch in a net.

In part this practice is due to the expense involved in animal husbandry, and partly due to the Lao preference for the taste of wild game. Either way, the eating of endangered species causes much consternation among wildlife conservationists - and anyone who's walked through a virtually silent forest and wondered what happened to all the game.