A gray-shanked douc langur (pygathrix cinerea) is found living in a forest in Nui Thanh district of Quang Nam Province. Two new families with some 10 gray-shanked douc langurs have been found in the area. (Photo courtesy of Ai Tam)Quang Nam (VNS/VNA) -Two families of 10 gray-shanked douc langurs (pygathrix cinerea) – a criticallyendangered (CR) species – have been newly found in the 30ha secondary forest inTam My Tay commune of the central province of Quang Nam’s Nui Thanh district.
A report on the existence ofthe CR gray-shanked douc langurs population in the area was released recently aftera six-month survey by the Centre of Biodiversity Conservation, GreenViet.
Director of GreenViet, Tran HuuVy, said the new families of the gray-shanked douc langurs were found in theexpanded mountains outside of the Do Mountain – home to the most crowdedpopulation of the langurs – increasing the number of the CR primates to eightfamilies with a total of 60 individuals from 2018.
He said the survey had been doneon six other mountains – Rom, Duong Choi, Na Lam, Bang Truc, Ba and Giang Thom– 500m away from the centre of six families with 50 of the gray-shanked douclangurs at the Do Mountain.
He said the result stronglyconfirmed that the population of the CR primate’s species has been wellprotected and grown, but it has not yet identified reproduction among the newfamilies.
The new families of the langurswere found living in two mountains of Na Lam and Bang Truc, he added.
Biologists from GreenViet alsoreported that 323 flora and fauna species, of which 11 species were listed asendangered in Vietnam’s Red Book.
However, biologists also warnedthe provincial people’s committee and rangers on the dangers including fire,snares at log farms, honeybee and orchid exploitation in the 120ha forest andlog farms. The human activities among local farmers would badly impact thelangurs in the area in the coming years.
GreenViet has been co-operatingwith the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-Vietnam and the United StatesAgency for International Development (USAID)-funded Green Annamites Project inpromoting protection and conservation of the langurs.
Quang Nam province had beenseeking a fund of 4.4 million USD to restore a 120ha area as a safe habitat forthe gray-shanked douc langurs.
According to FrankfurtZoological Society, some 1,000 gray-shanked doucs have been found in forests ofQuang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Kon Tum and Gia Lai.
The gray-shanked douc langur islisted on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list as one ofthe world’s 25 critically endangered primates.
The primates can only be seenin Vietnam./.
VNA
