The first national park in the country, Cuc Phuong also has Vietnam’s most advanced animal rescue and conservation centres. Words by Hoa Le. Photos by David Harris
When we arrived at Cuc Phuong National Park on a humid off-season day in June, it was nearly empty. In contrast to the other times I’ve been there, there were no flocks of tourists or students hoping off buses at the entrance. Only hundreds of beautiful butterflies welcomed us.
Cuc Phuong is the first and the oldest primary forest in Vietnam, established in 1962 during the American War, under the direction of Ho Chi Minh. It’s one of the richest sources of biodiversity in the country, with 97 mammal species, 300 bird species, 36 reptilian species, 17 species of amphibians, 11 species of fish, 2,000 plant species and thousands of insect species. Despite being recognised early as a nature preserve, until recently poaching and illegal hunting were still rampant.
Although the summer isn’t a good time to spot wild animals, we’re okay with that. We’re not relying on chance; we are visiting the endangered species that stay in the park’s three rescue and conservation centres.
Rare Primates
The Delacour’s langurs have an easily recognisable appearance because of the white fur on the legs. They are also known as the white short langurs or vooc mong trang (white bump langurs) in Vietnamese. Despite being named after a French-American zoologist, Delancour’s langurs are endemic to Vietnam. But the way these creatures were discovered is a story in itself.
According to Tilo Nadler, the founder of the Endangered Primate Rescue Center (EPRC), the first Delacour’s langur was first spotted in Cuc Phuong in the 1930s. But for 50 years after that, there were no sightings of these beautiful creatures; whether they were extinct or just hiding deep in the karst stone forest was a mystery.
In 1987, local forest dwellers happened upon two Delacour’s langurs in Cuc Phuong. And this time, the Frankfurt Zoological Society decided to carry out research to find more information on this rare species. The research didn’t disappoint them — the discovered that the primate was native only to Cuc Phuong and a few neighouring areas. And they were critically endangered.
At that time, Nadler was working as a biologist in Germany and was assigned to do the research. “These animals were so beautiful and critically endangered, so I thought I needed to do something about it. If we don’t protect them, they will eventually be gone.”
With the agreement of the park’s director, in 1993 Nadler built a primate rescue centre. Together with his wife Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, he has dedicated almost all of his life to the rescue, cure and care of rare primates.
20 years ago there were 18 or 19 subpopulations, comprising nearly a 1,000 individuals. Today, with a population of less than 250, Delacour’s langur is listed as one of The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Monkey Shines
As Hien shows us around the cages of 50 rescued animals, she tells us how they came here. All of the animals were confiscated from hunters and illegal traders, and many were severely injured when they arrived.
One Delacour’s langur sits on a branch high in his cage, his long furry tail nearly touching the ground. He quietly watches us as we come close. According to Hien, he knows we are newcomers here because we aren’t wearing staff uniforms.
The ultimate goal of Nadler and the centre is to release these animals back to the wild after rehabilitating them and training them in natural habits in semi-wild areas.
In 2012, five Delacour’s langurs were successfully released by the centre to Van Long Nature Reserve, about 30km from Cuc Phuong. In order to keep these animals safe, EPRC also hired 30 guards from eight communes around the area.
“Many of these guards were once actually hunters or the sons of the hunters,” Hien says. “Now they’re aware that hunting is not okay and they also make an impact on others. No more hunting is carried out in the area. All the guns were collected.”
Aside from the Delacour’s langur, EPRC has also released 10 Ha Tinh langurs back to Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in Quang Binh Province, where this species mostly originates from.
As Hien takes us around other cages, we see more beautiful and colourful langurs. There is the famous Cat Ba langur, known as the golden-headed langur because of the fur on its head. They are found only on Cat Ba Island, not anywhere else in the world. There are four individuals in the centre’s keeping. In the wild, there are sadly only 55 left — and not in one population, but in several groups, isolated and without contact with each other. This makes them even more critically endangered.
In the next cage sits a beautiful grey-shanked douc langur. Described as among the most beautiful primates in the world, these douc langurs were only discovered in Vietnam in 1997. They are only found in Central Vietnam — Quang Nam, Kon Tum, Gia Lai and Quang Ngai Provinces — and in small populations in Laos and Cambodia. According to Nadler, the langur’s critically endangered populations are highly fragmented and are estimated at about 1,000 individuals.
As for the centre’s humans, Nadler and Hien are happy with their results so far, but they are worried about running out of cages. And anyway, as Nadler says, “It’s sad to see animals that live only in cages. One day we want to release them all back to the wild.”
Turtles
As we enter the Turtle Conservation Centre (TCC) across from the EPRC, many beautiful and tiny turtles slowly crawl on the ground, while some swim in a pond inside the enclosure. They are among the 700 aquatic and terrestrial turtles and tortoises, from 18 species, being rehabilitated or hatched here.
Manager Do Thanh Hao picks up one small, keeled box turtle, which is native to the park, and explains its character to us. The hand-sized turtle has a yellow-brownish carapace, which is serrated on the lower edge just like a pretty autumn leave. In the middle of its bottom shell, the plastron, the turtle has a hinge that lets it close most of its body into its carapace — top shell — like a box. That’s how the name came about.
The most valuable and critically endangered turtle in the centre is the Vietnamese Pond Turtle or rua trung bo. Its native habitat is in Quang Ngai and the surrounding central regions. Out of the 300 dark yellow stripe-headed turtles in the centre, 71 of them were transferred last year from the Munster and Rotterdam Zoos.
In 2011, the TCC released 10 impressed tortoises into Pu Mat National Park. The impressed tortoise is a delicate species, difficult to keep in captivity. So they decided to give the animals a second chance in the wild.
One year later, the TCC in cooperation with Education for Nature Vietnam transferred 186 turtles to the Cu Chi Wildlife Rescue Station in southern Vietnam. The shipment included elongated tortoises, Giant Asia pond turtles, yellow-headed temple turtles, South Asian box turtles and black marsh turtles, which are all native to central or southern Vietnam.
Pangolin and Civets
One of the highlights for our trip was visiting the small carnivores and pangolins at the Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Program (CPCP) conservation centre. These animals sleep in the day and only wake up to look for food when the sun has already set. As we arrived at the centre at around 7pm, we are able to see a few civets and binturongs (bearcats) quietly striding around the cages. The pangolins are still sleeping — they normally wake up at 9pm in warm weather.
As staffer Nguyen Van Thai shines light on one of the cages, we see a beautiful black-and-white-striped Owston’s palm civet walking quietly on a branch. Although it’s just a little bigger than an adult cat, its mouth, neck and tail are much longer. Owston’s palm civets are among the animals at very high risk of being hunted for fur and food.
The CPCP currently holds 38 carnivores, including Owston’s civets, masked palm civets, small-toothed palm civets, binturongs, leopards, common palm civets and five Sunda pangolins. In the past, the centre has released rehabilitated carnivores and pangolins into Cat Tien and Cuc Phuong National Parks. But according to Thai, since 2010 the programme hasn’t received any new individuals, despite proof of a number of poaching confiscations.
“Sometimes we receive reports of the rangers confiscating animals,” Thai says. “But by the time we receive the permission to take them, they’ve already been sold back to the trade.” The current law lists these animals in endangered group IIB, one group lower than critically endangered. “This means that when animals are seized, if they are not able to be rescued or rehabilitated, they can be sold for commercial purposes. But in most cases, they are sold immediately, without any real health examination.”
This shouldn’t come as any surprise — pangolins are easily found on restaurant menus across Vietnam. In 2013, CNN reporter John Sutter investigated the pangolin trade and found a healthy supply chain in place, with huge profits going to traders of its meat and scales. In restaurants, pangolins are sold for as much as VND7 million a kilo.
As we finally come to the pangolin cage, Thai opens its box and we see a pangolin sleeping in peace. The animal senses our light, and slowly crawls to the back of the space to continue sleeping.
We leave Cuc Phuong the next day, but this time with a heavy heart and a big question. In the future, will our offspring be able to see any of these beautiful creatures in the wild?
Donations
To provide financial and emotional support to the conservation centres at Cuc Phuong National park, please contact the following people:
Endangered Primate Rescue Center
Tilo Nadler
t.nadler@hust.edu.vn
Nguyen Thi Thu Hien
thuhien191072@yahoo.com
Turtle Conservation Center
Do Thanh Hao
haodt.turtleconservation@gmail.com
Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Program
Nguyen Van Thai
asianpangolin@gmail.com
Getting There
Cuc Phuong National Park is in Ninh Binh Province about 120km from Hanoi. To get there, catch a bus from Giap Bat Station in Hanoi to the Nho Quan–Me area. From there, take a taxi or a xe om to the park.
Alternatively, the national park is located just off the Ho Chi Minh Trail (Highway 15). Follow the Thang Long Highway 30km out of Hanoi to Hoa Lac and turn left. This road becomes Highway 15. The park entrance is in Nho Quan.