Poachers rampant in Kon Ka Kinh National Park

Many precious and protected animals at the Kon Ka Kinh National Park in Gia Lai Province, one of 27 national parks listed on ASEAN Heritage Park, are being hunted and killed.

Kon Ka Kinh National Park

The red-shanked douc langurs at Son Tra Peninsula in Danang aren't scared of human and tourists can even approach them. However, the grey-shanked douc langurs at Kon Ka Kinh National Park are scared of lots of things. They can disappear from the usual eating and living location for months if they smell human scents, noises or dog barks.

The number of sighted grey-shanked douc langurs is lowering because of various traps and gun shots at night.

On February 7, the police of Mang Yang District, Gia Lai Province collaborated with agencies to inspect a convenience store owned by Dang Thi Ngoc Dung and Nguyen Van Tanh. They discovered four grey-shanked douc langurs, two wild cats, a Macaca assamensis, a bear macaque, two rhesus macaque, a southern pig-tailed macaque and seven black squirrels that were being frozen in two fridges to be made into glue later. Most of them are listed in the Vietnam Red Book.

It's still unclear where they were hunted but the only place nearby is the Kon Ka Kinh National Park.

A stuffed grey-shanked douc langur at a family in Gia Lai Province

Nguyen Van Hoan, the national park's director, admitted that many locals had sneaked guns into the park and the forest rangers can't cover the huge area. Traps are easily made and guns are hidden in the forest sometimes. They can find up to hundreds of traps and guns during each inspection.

Kon Ka Kinh is located 1,748m above the sea level, in the middle of the Annamese Range. Along with Ba Be, Hoang Lien and Chu Mom Ray, Kon Ka Kinh was also recognised as a ASEAN Heritage Park in 2003.

The forest rangers found many guns during inspections

It has a rich flora with 22 types listed in Vietnam Red Book and the IUCN Red List. There are 556 animal species and 47 are in the Vietnam Red Book and IUCN Red List. Many precious, protected and endemic species are found in here such as grey-shanked douc langurs, red tailed lizard and the white-cheeked laughing thrush.

Recently, the red-shanked douc langurs have also been discovered at Kon Ka Kinh along with the grey-shanked douc langurs. Both are on the list of 25 most endangered primate species in the world.