Shy langurs in Cat Tien National Park

VietNamNet Bridge - With an area of 72,000 hectares, harmonious nature, and a diverse habitat, the National Park of Cat Tien has a very rich fauna and flora system and many rare species, including primates.

VietNamNet Bridge - With an area of 72,000 hectares spreading over the three provinces of Lam Dong, Binh Phuoc and Dong Nai, harmonious nature, and a diverse habitat, the National Park of Cat Tien has a very rich fauna and flora system and many rare species, including primates.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dien, Director of the Cat Tien National Park, said there are more than 130 individuals belonging to five different primate species in the park, including the red-faced monkey, the pig-tailed macaque, black-shanked doucs langur, golden cheeked gibbon and coolies. All of them are listed in group 1B (endangered, rare).

Ecological experts said most of the national parks in Vietnam have only a few species of primates but Cat Tien gathers many primate species of all three regions in Vietnam – the north, the south and the central region.

The black-shanked doucs langur is the endemic leaf-eating species of Vietnam and Cambodia. Not as flexible as other monkey species, black-shanked douc langurs are prone to changes and incidents (they usually sit and cover their faces by hands while facing external impacts).

Dr. Vu Ngoc Long, Director of the Southern Institute of Ecology, said the golden cheeked gibbon species is highly endangered. This is a species with highly conservative behavior. If their habitat is narrowed or split, they will continue to be there instead of moving to another place.

The park is also the home to small loris, the species also named in the Red Book of Vietnam and the world. This is the small primate species, which operate at night. Small loris often live in bamboo forest or bamboo - wood forest. This species is also vulnerable because of their gentleness. Loris has big round eyes and they are very gentle and friendly.

Poaching is threatening the primates in the Cat Tien National Park.

In 2014 - 2015 many people showed off their killing of primates on Facebook. However, they were just a small part of the problem of hunting and killing wild animals in Vietnam.