VietNamNet Bridge – The Cat Tien national park has tens of animal species whose names have been listed in the world’s red book as the species that need strict protection. Gaur is one of them.
Java rhino is reportedly extinct in Vietnam

Cat Tien is a remote area in the Lam Dong province in the central region of Vietnam, but it has been well known all over the world, partially because of the one-horn rhino population. However, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) have announced that one-horn rhino is extinct in Vietnam. The death of the last rhino in Vietnam has caused big sadness to Vietnamese people, especially environmentalists.

“However, the sad story about rhinos should be put on the back burner to focus on protecting the remaining animals,” said Huynh Van Dau, Secretary General of the Cat Tien district’s Party Committee.

He stressed that there are tens of other animals in Cat Tien that need stern protection, not only rhinos, and if local authorities, local people and scientists cannot join forces to protect them, the same scenario which happened with rhino, would happen with other animals as well. After the rhino, gaur is now facing the high risk of extinction.

“When rhinos still existed, we vowed to use drastic measures to protect the forests and animals. And now, when rhinos have died, we need to become more determined to protect the forests and animals,” Dau said.

According to Tran Van Thanh, Director of the Cat Tien National Park, there are about three or four herds of 100 gaurs living in the park. In the Vietnamese red book, gaur is listed in the group of animals facing high risk of extinction.

The population of gaurs in the Cat Tien Park gathers in a small area of 70,000 hectares, but the area is still large enough to be contiguous to nearly 40 communes with high number of local residents belonging to the three provinces of Lam Dong, Dong Nai and Binh Phuoc. This is the biggest threat to the rare animals which are in the danger of getting extinct.

Not only the population in the contiguous areas, but the 18,000 people living nearby could be a big threat to the wild animals in the national park, including gaur.

After the gaurs were discovered in Cat Tien, in 2006, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the French Global Environment Facility gave an aid worth 580,000 euros to help preserve and maintain and develop the genes of wild bulls

Dangers lurking for gaurs in Cat Tien

Nguyen Van Minh, Deputy Head of the Forest Management Unit at the Cat Tien National Park, has provided some interesting information: seven years ago, a couple of Dutch travelers once saw a herd of 20 gaurs crossing an area. And they tried not to miss the opportunity: hiding themselves in a bush, they filmed the scene and then showed the 15-minute film, which, to date, remains the important documentary film about the gaurs of Cat Tien.

“I hope that this is not the last film about gaurs,” Minh said.

“After the death of the last rhino, we really feel worried about the existence of gaurs, since the wild animal hunting has become more and more serious,” he continued.

Also according to Minh, the forest rangers have not discovered any case of hunting for gaurs. However, every month, the forest management unit found 4-5 self-modified rifles in the national park, which should be seen as a worrying sign that may threatens the life of gaurs.

Nowadays, a gaur could be priced at up to 50-60 million dong on the market, while gaur’s meat is 3-4 times more expensive than normal beef, which explains why hunting for gaurs is so attractive to people.

“Every year, we find 20,000 animal traps in the forests. We found 200 big traps specifically designed to trap big animals,” Thanh said.

Source: Lao dong