A red-shanked douc langur in Ba Na-Nui Chua forest near Da Nang city (Photo courtesy GreenViet) Da Nang (VNA) - Biologists have found 22 animal species, includingnine endangered ones, through a wildlife supervision programme in the Ba Na-NuiChua Nature Reserve near the central city of Da Nang.
The Centre of Biodiversity Conservation (GreenViet) cooperated with themanagement board of the Ba Na-Nui Chua Nature Reserve to announce that twospecies – Owston’s Cvivet and Spotted Linsang – were spotted for the time everin the reserve.
The camera trap system, which operated from May to December of 2016, alsosnapped the first-ever pictures of Chamois or Sumatran Serow and Crested arguspheasant in the reserve – 30km west of the city’s centre.
Accordingto biologists, the 24-camera trap system set up at 29 sites recorded more than11,400 photos, of which 2,100 had high resolution images of animals.
The wildlife supervision programme, which was jointly organised by GreenViet,the US-based San Diego Zoo Global and the Ba Na-Nui Chua Nature Reserve, helpedrecord the movements of endangered species in the reserve, providing evidencefor research and biodiversity protection.
Bui Van Tuan, a biologist from GreenViet, told Vietnam News that thecamera trap, used for the first time in Da Nang, also got photos of nine herdsof the endangered red-shanked douc langur with an estimate of 48 or 65individuals, and 13 herds of gibbon – newly identified in 2010.
Tuan said the programme has added two species – Owston’s Cvivet and SpottedLinsang – in the official list of animals in the reserve.
He said nine endangered species are needed to be given a special protection bythe Government including the red-shanked douc langur; Stump-tailed macaques;Northern Pig-tailed Macaque; Small Indian civet; Spotted linsang; Owston’scvivet; musk-deer or Tragulus; Sumatran Serow; Crested argus pheasant orOcellated Pheasant.
He said the programme was involved the participation of experts, biologists andscientists from the Frankfurt Zoological Society of German, the San Diego ZooGlobal in the US and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)and Save’s Vietnam Wildlife in identifying species through high-resolutionpictures.
The 28,000ha-reserve, established in 1986, is home to 626 animal species and793 plant species, including several endangered primates such as theRed-Shanked Douc, the northern buffed-cheeked gibbon and Edwards’s pheasant,which are rarely seen in nature.
Located 1,487m above sea level, it was initially used as a mountain resort bythe French in 1912 and remains an attraction for tourists visiting the Ba NaHills Mountain resort and using the cable car routes.
Rapid urbanisation and illegal logging have encroached on the wildlife habitatand threatened the biodiversity of the city’s two nature reserves – the Ba Na-NuiChua and Son Tra.
The World Wide Fund for Nature set up camera traps in 1992 and recorded aliving Sao la, Vu Quang ox, spindlehorn, or Asian bicorn – one of the world’srarest large mammals - in the Vu Quang Nature Reserve in 1999 and another in QuangNam province in 2013.
Thecentral city has chosen the red-shanked douc langur as the official mascot of DaNang at the 2017 APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Economic Leaders’Meeting.-VNA
VNA
