Thwarting hunters who prey on the golden-head

[Guest guest]

Thwarting hunters who prey on the golden-head

Zeke Barlow is a US-based writer who recently visited Vietnam

 

08/22/2001

South China Morning Post

16

© Copyright 2001 South China Morning Post Publishers. All Rights

Reserved.

 

ROSI STENKE IS HUNTING hunters. For two hours, the primatologist

plods through the Vietnamese jungle, searching for the place where the

men who kill monkeys sleep. Just before reaching the hunters' camp, she

points to a cave opening, high on a cliffside, where the rock is stained

brown from years of monkey dung. " But there aren't any monkeys there

now, " the German scientist says. " They got them all. "

 

It's a common lament for Ms Stenke. The hunters are after the

golden-headed langur, the world's most endangered primate, which is

endemic to Cat Ba Island off Vietnam's northern coast. Last year, 120 of

the langurs were counted; this year, there are 57.

" If I don't hurry up, we might not have the langur next year, " says

Ms Stenke who works with the German-based Zoological Society for the

Conservation of Species and Populations.

 

The primates are prized for their alleged medicinal uses and for food

- not only for villagers who live within Cat Ba National Park, but also

for tourists who visit this vacation island.

 

" Bushmeat " or anything that is derived from the forest is a delicacy

that makes you strong when you eat it, according to Vietnamese

tradition. Meat that comes from a black animal is said to make a man

virile. From the neck down, the golden-headed langur, is all black.

 

" Because the locals know about it, they want to try the langur, " says

Hoang Van Lap, a Cat Ba native who remembers days on the island when the

monkeys' calls resonated through the forest. " There were many kinds of

monkeys here before. They were everywhere. "

 

Former hunter Soi Bui, 65, killed as many as 50 monkeys back in the

1960s and 70s. He has an indentation on his foot where a monkey bit him

after he trapped it. When the hunting got too scarce, Mr Bui stopped

shooting and started farming. He hopes others will, too.

 

" I think they will become extinct. That's too bad. I like watching

them. "

 

Four of the world's most endangered primates are found in Vietnam.

The country's tropical climate and diverse geography make it one of the

world's top 25 biodiversity hotspots, defined by Conservation

International as " places that cover only 1.4 per cent of the Earth's

land surface but claim more than 60 per cent of all plant and animal

diversity " .

 

Vietnam also has the second-highest population density in Southeast

Asia. A mix of too many people and ready food sources in the forest

often leads to overhunting and the decimation of species, Ms Stenke

says.

 

" People need food, and traditionally they use the forest, " she says.

" To them, it's just meat. "

 

Last year, Africa's Western Colobus became the first primate to

become extinct since 1900. John Oates, the lead researcher on that

project, says conservation in the developing world is particularly

challenging when the locals have no other source of income or incentive

to save the animals.

 

The golden-headed langur wins - or loses - in all four of the

categories which determine levels of endangerment: the size of the

population, the animal's range, the opportunity for expansion and the

potential for crossbreeding.

 

Ms Stenke can't be sure if there is crossbreeding among the eight

groups of primates on Cat Ba. But the langur population is almost

one-fifth the size necessary to be considered viable. Its potential for

expansion on an island is nil, and the Government is shrinking the size

of the national park, and paving roads and developing communities.

 

Ms Stenke is less bothered by the loss of habitat than by the

increase of tourists curious about the taste of bushmeat. The owners of

the two restaurants in Cat Ba Town, known to sell everything from

langurs to lizards, recently denied they had the jungle delicacy on

their menus. " It's very scarce; we don't have anything and might not for

a while, " one owner says.

 

They Dinh is one of the reasons for the jungle's silence. When he was

a boy, Mr Dinh's father took him to the jungle and taught him how to

shoot monkeys with a rifle that he saved from the " American War " . Over

time, Mr Dinh reckons he killed about 40 monkeys, both golden-headed

langurs and rhesus macaques, which also live on the island and whose

future is also listed as vulnerable. He says he ate the meat or gave it

away but never sold it. He stopped hunting three years ago - partly

because he makes more money running a tourist shop on the island, partly

because he didn't want to go to jail.

 

Nobody remembers the last time the law was used, but anyone found in

possession of a langur could be sentenced to up to two years in prison

and fined the equivalent of HK$2,300 to $4,600.

 

Mr Dinh says the langur's behaviour is contributing to its downfall.

When one langur is shot, the others just hang around, trying to figure

out what happened. Mr Dinh says he once shot five langur this way.

 

" They are very easy for hunters, " he says. Another hunter was

credited with taking 10 langurs in one outing earlier this year.

 

Ms Stenke says some langurs have adapted to the hunting pressures. In

one group, the male leader was killed after he called out and gave away

their position. A female assumed leadership of the pack, and she no

longer calls out to communicate with the others.

 

But these adaptations won't save the langur from extinction.

 

The hunter camp Ms Stenke found on her hike through the jungle

revealed no signs of recent life - only piles of corroded batteries,

food and perfume bottles - but she knows there are others out there.

 

So she is creating a nature reserve on a fingerlet of the island. It

will be fiercely protected and, she hopes, away from the aim of hunters.

 

She has the government's approval, and her organisation has given her

the initial cash to move the remaining langurs to the eight- by

three-kilometre peninsula sometime next year. She believes that putting

them all in one area will not only keep the population at a viable size

but also decrease the potential for crossbreeding with other species.

 

" Perhaps it's useless what we do here, but we can only try, " Ms

Stenke says. " I think the langurs have a chance of survival. "

 

 

Copyright © 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.