VietNamNet Bridge – A 70-year-old German man left his family and job to come to Vietnam, where he can fulfill his aspiration for protecting primates, especially delacour langurs.

Tilo Nadler is the director of the Endangered Primate Rescue Center in the Cuc Phuong National Park in Ninh Binh province. He has a red face, a bushy beard, regularly wears a green outfit. He looks seasoned and he always makes a strong impression on the people he meets.

Being grateful to the man, who has spent 20 years of his life to protect Vietnam’s primates, local residents have given him many lovely names, such as “hiep si vooc” (the knight of langurs), “linh truong chua” (the king of the primates) or “Cuc Phuong Luc Van Tien” (Luc Van Tien of Cuc Phuong forest).

The man who revives Vietnam’s langurs

Tilo once worked for German television, while he kept the special passion for the wildlife, especially langurs. Therefore, he became a collaborative of the Frankfurt Animals Association--so as to spend more time on learning about the wildlife. Then he became an expert in primate studies.

The Frankfurt Animals Association is the longest lasting organization which rescues and protects animals. It has been operating in 30 countries worldwide.

In 1991, Tilo was asked to go to Vietnam to make a film about delacour langurs 57 years after they were re-appeared in Vietnam. Prior to that, the animals were believed to be exhausted in the wild.

After many months of searching, he finally found delacour langur. However, it was not an animal which ran in the forest, but an individual who was captured in a cage available at a market. If the langur had been sold, it would have become a luxurious dish for people.

The man then came to the competent agencies to ask about the case and received no information. Some local people sometimes reminded of the day when they saw a foreigner with red face beating on the table in front of local officials. Therefore, the man has also been called “the God of Thunder.”

The said langur, which was rescued at that time, has generated a lot of descendants.

In 1992, the Frankfurt association called on experts to come to Vietnam to implement the langur conservation project. Tilo was the volunteer.

With the support from the organization, he built the endangered primate rescue center in the Cuc Phuong National Park in 1993-1996.

Since then, he became the terror to those who illegally hunted for wild animals in the national park.

One time, he saw a specimen of a precious species of langur at the waiting room of a hotel and he tried to confiscate the specimen. However, the hotel owner told him that he had to pay 30 dollars to get the specimen.

After paying 30 dollars, he came to the Vietnam Forest Ranger Agency with the specimen, where he said to the officials here: “I am helping you protect the wildlife,” then asked the agency to pay 30 dollars back to him.

One time, Tilo burst out crying when seeing two langurs which were killed by crocodiles while they were trying to protect the newborns.

Tilo initially planned to stay in Vietnam for three years to study primates. However, when the project got completed, he still could not leave Vietnam.

He feels that he needs to stay here in Vietnam to protect the primates in the danger. However, the most important thing which made him decide to stay in Vietnam was the happy family with the Vietnamese wife and two children.

VNE
Translated by Kim Chi