Police in Van Ninh District, Khanh Hoa Province apprehended three men who are now in custody as suspects in the killing of 7 endangered langurs.
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| 2 black-shanked douc langurs killed in 2009 |
At 9pm on July 6, at the entrance to the jungle of Van Phu Commune, patrol forces of Van Ninh District Police discovered three subjects carrying 7 langurs (a critically endangered primate) that had been shot to death.
The suspects were apprehended immediately along with two guns and nine bullets which were confiscated as well. Reports say the suspects have confessed to killing the 7 langurs.
Van Ninh District Police have sent the primates to the Institute of Tropical Biology under the Vietnam Academy of Science & Technology in Ho Chi Minh City for further tests to determine which specific type of langur species the recovered bodies were.
The functional agency will decide the punishment according to the laws when the results of the tests come back.
According to information released by police on July 7, the suspects are Nguyen Dinh Phan, 38, from at Van Phu Commune, Van Ninh District; Luong Van Chanh, 33, from Ninh Ich Commune, Ninh Hoa District and Ho Xuan Thanh, 38, from at Vinh Phuong Commune, Nha Trang City.
| Khanh Hoa is among the provinces where many langurs, mainly black-shanked douc langurs (also known scientifically as Pygathrix nigripes) live. They are one of the most critically endangered primate species in the World. There have been 8 poaching cases resulting in 12 langurs dying from December 2007 to the end of 2009. In June 2009, the People’s court of Cam Lam District put 3 people in jail for 10 years for the killing of 5 black-shanked douc langurs at Hon Ba Natural Reserve, Cam Lam District, Khanh Hoa Province. |
