A groundbreaking initiative is saving an unusual monkey in Vietnam
Conservationists are helping people feel connected to a red-faced, potbellied monkey, and it's working.
Red-shanked doucs look like what I imagine an AI model would spit out if prompted to create a beautiful yet strange-looking monkey. With their two-toned orange faces, big black round eyes, and white beards, these monkeys look quite surreal.
It turns out this surreal quality goes beyond just their appearances.
Red-shanked doucs, who live in treetops in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, are considered the most colorful species among all primates.
They love climbing between branches and eating leaves. In fact, they eat so many leaves that they’ve developed a special four-chambered digestive system, similar to that of a cow, to digest their fiber-heavy diet.
This is rare among monkeys, and in this case, it has a funny side effect.
As Alex Fox reports in Smithsonian Magazine:
This digestive machinery takes up a lot of room, giving the animals a potbelly.
Andie Ang, a primate researcher for Singapore-based conservation nonprofit Mandai Nature, said that when she first saw a red-shanked douc in the wild she wondered if it was pregnant.
“I was told, ‘Oh, no, that’s a male.’”
But their chunkiness doesn’t stop them from being extremely agile. Though they measure less than 2 feet on average, they can leap up to a distance of 20 feet when they are jumping from tree to tree.
These unique monkeys are awe-inspiring in and of themselves, but what is even more special is the story of a very special effort to save them from extinction.
Red-shanked doucs are critically endangered as the forests where they live are being destroyed by urban development, mining, agriculture and other practices. The monkeys are also threatened by those who capture and hunt them for meat or to sell as pets.
In fact, their population has decreased by more than 80 percent in recent decades.
But a group of conservationists in Vietnam are trying to change that.
In 2013, these conservationists, working as part of an organization called GreenViet, started a campaign to raise awareness about the red-shanked doucs in Son Tra, a nature reserve and popular destination that is also nicknamed “Monkey Mountain.”
Led by ecologist Ha Thang Long, the group realized that to save the monkey, they needed to get local residents on board. So they started educating people about the red-shanked doucs by putting up posters and leading wildlife tours and other programming.
The goal was to make people feel connected to and appreciate the doucs, and it worked.
This heightened awareness became important in 2017, when the Vietnamese government announced plans to build luxury hotels in Son Tra, threatening the douc’s habitat.
GreenViet collected some 13,000 signatures opposing the plan, which, along with efforts from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Vietnam’s Southern Institute of Ecology, helped persuade the government to suspend it.
When people felt connected to the monkeys, they were more likely to advocate on their behalf. This is part of a broader theory in conservation that exposing people to wild animals will help them gain an appreciation that will ultimately lead them to take action to protect the environment and wildlife.
GreenViet’s programs have led to a significant increase in the local douc population, which is still critically endangered but bouncing back.
As pride in this monkey has increased, Son Tra’s red-shanked douc numbers have grown from roughly 350 individuals in 2012 to an estimated 2,000 today.
“Seeing the beauty of the red-shanked doucs connects people to nature,” Ha says. “I hope more people see that animals deserve to live on this planet just like humans do.”
Truly a beautiful example of people coming together to preserve nature’s awe. To learn more about red-shanked doucs and the efforts to save them, check out this breathtaking short film:
Detta var en ny spännande bekantskap ! Vilken rolig liten apa med röda strumpor och tjock mage, svans som är lika lång som kroppen och ett sött ansikte med skägg .
Som alltid så välskrivet och som alltid ett intressant ämne där man lär sig något nytt .
Jag hoppas att kostymapan( som den kallas på svenska ) skyddas och få möjlighet att föröka sig och bo tryggt uppe i trädkronorna .