Extinction stalks the monkeys of Vietnam

[Guest guest]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/01/20/MN186867.DTL

 

Extinction stalks the monkeys of Vietnam

Only tourist dollars can mollify hunters of endangered primates

 

Zeke Barlow, Chronicle Foreign Service

Sunday, January 20, 2002

 

Cat Ba National Park, Vietnam -- Rosi Stenke is hunting hunters.

 

For two hours, she plods through the Vietnamese jungle, searching for the

place where the men who kill monkeys sleep. Just before reaching their camp,

she points to a cave opening high on a cliff side, where the rock is stained

from years of accumulated monkey dung.

 

" There aren't any monkeys there now, " said Stenke, a German primatologist.

" They got them all. "

 

The hunters are after the golden-headed langur (Trachypithecus

poliocephalus), the world's most endangered primate, which is endemic to Cat

Ba Island off Vietnam's northern coast. Last year, there were about 120 if

the leaf-eating langurs. Today, there are about 55.

 

Four of the world's most endangered primates are endemic to Vietnam. They

include the golden-headed langur, Delacour's langur, the gray-shanked douc

langur and the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey.

 

Vietnam's tropical climate and diverse geography -- from karstic oceanfront

cliffs to tropical mountain jungles -- make it one of the world's 25

biodiversity hot spots, defined by Conservation International as " places

that cover only 1.4 percent of the Earth's land surface, but claim more than

60 percent of plant and animal diversity. "

 

When Stenke, who is with the German Zoological Society for the Conservation

of Species and Populations, finally arrives at the hunters' camp, she

discovers no signs of life, other than corroded size-D batteries, soup

packages and the jawbone of a serow, a jungle goat that finds its way into

many a local wok.

 

The langurs are coveted for their alleged medicinal uses and for food -- not

only for villagers who live within Cat Ba National Park, but also for Asian

tourists who visit this vacation island of sandy beaches, coral reefs,

forested hills, small freshwater lakes, mangroves and swamp forests.

 

According to local tradition, " bush meat " is considered a delicacy that

generates energy. In local lore, meat from a black-colored 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 langur, " said Hoang Van

Lap, a Cat Ba native who remembers when monkey calls resonated throughout

the forest. " There were many kinds of monkeys here before. They were

everywhere. "

 

They Dinh is one of the reasons for the jungle's silence. As a boy, his

father taught him how to shoot monkeys with a rifle that he saved from the

Vietnam War.

 

Dinh estimated that he has killed about 40, including golden-headed langurs

and rhesus macaques, the latter another endangered species. He said he

stopped hunting three years ago, because he earns more money operating a

tourist shop on the island.

 

" If I kill the monkey, nobody will want to come here, " he said. " And I don't

want to go to prison. "

 

But locals continue to hunt in these areas, since there are few rangers to

enforce a law that says anyone caught with a langur could be sentenced up to

two years in prison and fined from $300 to $600. Nobody remembers the last

time anyone was charged, but Stenke hunts on in hope of finding poachers to

report to the government.

 

The government has published its " Red Data Book, " which lists 16 primate

species and subspecies, of which seven are endangered and nine are

considered vulnerable. Hanoi has also established three breeding centers and

26 protected areas for primates.

 

But Vietnam also has the second highest population density in Southeast Asia

after the Philippines, a status that often leads to overhunting and

decimation of species, Stenke said.

 

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

them, it's just meat. "

 

In 2000, Africa's Miss Waldron's red colobus (Procolobus badius waldroni)

became the first primate to become extinct since 1800. New estimates suggest

that 10 percent of the world's 608 primate species and subspecies on three

continents are critically imperiled because of renewed surges of

deforestation and poaching in the 1990s.

 

U.S. primatologist John Oates, an expert on the colobus, said conservation

in the Third World is especially difficult because locals have no other

source of income or incentives to save the animals. On the Ivory Coast and

Ghana, farming eliminated the red colobus' swampy habitat.

 

Stenke said that lack of incentive to save the golden-headed langur is part

of the problem.

 

The langur's population is almost one-fifth the size required to be

considered viable; its potential for expansion is nil. Moreover, the

government plans to shrink the nearly 24,000-acre terrestrial portion of the

national park by nearly 3,000 acres, pave roads and develop infrastructure

to bolster tourism -- a plan that has angered international conservation

groups.

 

" Like many other protected areas in Vietnam, Cat Ba is under serious

pressure for development, " said Nguyen Diep Hoa, communications manager for

the Hanoi office of the WWF (formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund).

" The government is aware of the need to protect wildlife, but the need for

development is always stronger. "

 

Hanoi officials have yet to clarify development plans, but have said that

the government will create a second harbor for tourist boats and promote

hotel construction to accommodate an influx of visitors to Cat Ba, the

largest of more than 3,000 islands located in Halong Bay.

 

But even without tourist development, Dinh says the langurs' naivete is

another reason for their imminent downfall. He said that after he shot one

langur, the others hung around, trying to figure out what had happened to

their slain companion. So he shot four more. " They are very easy for

hunters, " he said.

 

Stenke, however, 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, which no longer

calls out to communicate with the others.

 

Stenke is well aware that those adaptations won't save the langur from

extinction. So she is creating a nature reserve on a small strip of the

island that she hopes will protect the langur from hunters. She has the

government's approval, and her organization and the Muenster Zoo in Germany

have given her the $50,000 seed money needed to relocate all 55 primates

sometime this 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 inbreeding.

 

" Perhaps it is useless what we do here, but we can only try, " she said. " I

think the langurs have a chance of survival. "

 

Soi Boi, a 65-year-old former hunter, is not as optimistic. Soi, who says he

has killed as many as 50 monkeys, carries around a large scar on his foot

from an encounter with a monkey that tore his flesh after being trapped.

When hunting became scarce, Soi started farming and hopes other hunters will

do the same.

 

" I think they will become extinct, " he said as he swung his sleeping

granddaughter in a hammock. " That's too bad. I like watching them. "

 

 

 

----------

----

Vietnam's most-endangered primates

The world's most-endangered primates are located around the globe in

tropical climates. Four endemic to Vietnam are being decimated, in large

part, by habitat loss and hunting for use in traditional medicines and

eating.

 

Golden-headed langur

 

The leaf-eater numbers about 55 and is only found on Cat Ba Island. Thought

to be extinct in the 1990s, its potential as a tourist attraction could aid

its preservation.

 

Tonkin snub-nosed langur

 

Discovered in 1910, it was found only twice in the next 50 to 60 years and

thought to be extinct until resurfacing in 1989. About 200 are thought to

remain in forests adjoining the Bac Thai and Tuyen Quang provinces.

 

Delacour's langur

 

First described in 1932, this leaf-eating monkey is thought to number less

than 200, including a population at a Cuc Phuong National Park preserve

established to preserve endangered primates.

 

Gray-shanked douc langur

 

Six specimens of the previously unknown species were found and donated to

Cuc Phuong National Park between 1995 and 1998. Once thought to be a

hybridization, prevailing opinion now points to a distinct subspecies or

full species.

 

Other primates on the brink

 

Mountain gorilla

 

Rwanda, Uganda and Congo

 

The world's largest living primate is one of the most endangered. An

estimated 320 remain in east-central Africa.

 

Golden-crowned sifaka

 

Madagascar

 

This small lemur is threatened by n settlements and gold miners drawn to

their habitat. Only four in captivity, all at Duke University.

 

Golden lion tamarin

 

Brazil

 

An international breeding program has increased this squirrel-size primate's

numbers to about 800 in Brazil's Atlantic Forest.

 

White-naped mangabey

 

Ghana and Ivory Coast

 

This African primate has declined quickly in the past 30 years. It is likely

that only a few thousand remain.

 

Buff-headed capuchin

 

Brazil

 

This species has suffered a sharp decline, primarily due to hunting and loss

of habitat in Brazil's Atlantic Forest. Estimates of remaining populations

are unavailable.