Law

Notes:Journey to hunt for wild animals in the middle of Pu Mat forest

Tien Dong - Technique: Hong Toai • DNUM_BEZAIZCACF 16:48

In the vastness of Pu Mat, every day, every hour, there are still silent camera lenses following the traces of wild animals. The photos taken are not for posting on social networks, to attract views, but to be kept as research materials and as the most convincing evidence of the biodiversity in Pu Mat National Park.

Author:Tien Dong -Technique:Hong Toai• August 13, 2025

One day in early August, I followed National Highway 7 up to the mountainous area in the west of Nghe An, where there is Pu Mat National Park - one of the three important core areas of the Western Nghe An Biosphere Reserve, which was officially recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a World Biosphere Reserve on September 18, 2007.

With the desire to learn how to record images of wild animals in the middle of the jungle, I was taken by the staff of Pu Mat National Park to "witness" how to set up camera traps. Indeed, only by going there can I know that the photos of wild animals seem to be simply a click of the camera, but in fact they are the result of a quiet, patient and scientific process, carried out with camera traps placed deep in the jungle.

From the office area of ​​Pu Mat National Park, we continued to go west for more than 40 km, deep into the core area of ​​Pu Mat National Park, in Mon Son commune. Carrying along were large backpacks, a few rolls of rope, cameras, batteries and sensors that were neatly prepared, ready for a silent "ambush" in the deep forest. After a journey of more than 1 hour on a motorbike, when we reached the edge of the forest, we left our motorbikes in one place and walked about 2 km deep into the forest to reach the camera trap location.

Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung - Deputy Head of the Science Department, Pu Mat National Park, accompanied us on this trip. Mr. Hung - a person with many years of experience in biodiversity research and wildlife conservation. Mr. Hung said that the practice of setting camera traps to record images of wildlife began around the early 1990s. At that time, Pu Mat National Park was also called Pu Mat Nature Reserve.

At that time, conditions were limited, equipment was rudimentary, mostly mechanical film cameras, and we were completely dependent on funding programs from international organizations for nature conservation. “Each time we set a trap, we had to wait a whole month to get the film developed - opening the photos was as exciting as waiting for lottery results,” Mr. Hung said happily.

According to Mr. Hung, camera trapping has been greatly improved today, not only in terms of equipment but also in terms of scientific methods. Depending on each research topic, such as carnivores, ungulates, primates or rare species, the survey team will arrange camera traps in the form of appropriate grids. Normally, the grids will be 1.5 - 2 km apart to ensure coverage of the actual living area of ​​the species. "If an area has a high frequency of animals appearing in the photos, it proves that the distribution density is good, which shows that conservation work is on the right track," Mr. Hung analyzed.

Mr. Pham Xuan Sang - a veteran ranger of Pu Mat National Park, with more than 20 years of experience in the forest, walked briskly on the trail and shared: "Setting camera traps requires skill, it's not just tying the camera to the base of a tree."

Setting camera traps may sound simple, but according to Mr. Sang, it requires a lot of experience, meticulousness and understanding of the habits of each animal species. Especially with extremely intelligent species such as elephants, tigers..., because if they smell a strange smell, they will avoid it and never come near again.

Therefore, when setting camera traps, Pu Mat National Park staff must learn how to "go to the forest like the locals". That means not using new clothes that smell of soap or shampoo, but instead wearing old clothes, soaked in the smell of the forest and mountains, just like a long-time hunter. When setting up the camera, they must follow familiar trails and paths of wild animals, where there are footprints, scratches or droppings left behind.

What upset the staff of Pu Mat National Park the most when setting camera traps was discovering many sophisticated traps set by poachers on the paths. “There were traps still waiting for animals to step into, and there were also traps that had collapsed, stuck with dried dead animals. It was so heartbreaking to see,” Mr. Sang sighed.

For the staff of Pu Mat National Park, the journey to set camera traps is not only to collect scientific data, but also an opportunity to check the current status of forest protection, remove traps, rescue animals, and preserve the last bit of integrity for the great forest.

After completing the placement of more than 10 camera traps in the forest and checking each device in detail. We returned when it was just getting late afternoon. According to the schedule and plan of this camera trap placement, the group will return to remove the devices about a month later. After collecting data on the animals appearing in the camera traps, the Science Department of Pu Mat National Park will have a report on the density and habits of those animals, to serve future research work.

In addition to setting traps to photograph wild animals, we were told many thrilling stories by the staff of Pu Mat National Park about the journey to follow the footprints of rare animals. There are species such as wild boar, monkey, deer, muntjac, and even elephants that appear frequently in the camera traps. The tiger in particular was a long journey, but there was only one time we were able to photograph it, 26 years ago.

It was at 1:30 a.m. on December 21, 1999, a camera trap set deep in the Pu Mat old forest flashed. The image that followed shocked the entire conservation community. An adult Indochinese tiger, estimated to weigh 150-170kg, was cautiously entering the hunting area when it was captured, completely in the frame. The photo was the result of a collaborative project between Pu Mat National Park and an international conservation organization, with modern equipment funded by Europe. It became the only photo of a wild tiger in Pu Mat National Park to date. And that is also what many officers and employees of Pu Mat National Park are concerned about.

Mr. Le Anh Tuan - Director of Pu Mat National Park told the story of taking the photo of the tiger in a slow and sad voice, but his eyes still lit up with emotion as if the image of the tiger had just appeared yesterday. "We had placed so much hope in that moment. It was not just a photo, but also living proof that Pu Mat forest still has the breath of animals, symbols of the time when they dominated the old forest," said Mr. Tuan.

“

After that fateful flash in 1999, hundreds of other camera traps were set up on trails, streams, and mountaintops. But never again did a tiger return to the camera trap.

Mr. Le Anh Tuan - Director of Pu Mat National Park

Mr. Tuan said that every time he set a camera trap or checked the results, he always wished that his colleagues could once again "have luck" in taking pictures of tigers. The staff of Pu Mat National Park themselves still quietly hoped that, even just once in thousands of photos taken, a faint yellow-black stripe would appear in the middle of the forest canopy, or just a pair of fierce eyes in the dark night. But they absolutely did not see it.

That feeling of longing has haunted the staff of Pu Mat National Park for decades. However, they have not given up. "The only fear is that it has fallen into the hands of poachers, or has crossed the border into Laos. If it is still alive, it will definitely return," Mr. Tuan hopes.

As someone who has been attached to the forest trees and wild animals in Pu Mat National Park for many years, Mr. Tuan understands that the photo of the Indochinese tiger is not only a testament to the biodiversity of Pu Mat forest, but it also has a great impact on scientists when conducting research on the conservation of wild animals in Nghe An in particular and Vietnam in general.

However, according to Mr. Tuan, hunting for photos of tigers and other wild animals in the wild is a difficult and patient journey, requiring a combination of modern technology, deep ecological knowledge and luck. Because tigers are solitary carnivores, move quietly, are mainly nocturnal and have the habit of avoiding humans, making it extremely difficult to approach and record. Even when hundreds of camera traps are installed, they can still avoid or simply not pass through the area where the equipment is.

In fact, with its terrain, climate and characteristic natural factors, Pu Mat National Park has extremely rich natural resources. In particular, the typical tropical and subtropical forest ecosystem on the mountains, with forest coverage accounting for over 98%, of which 76% of the natural area is primary forest or insignificantly impacted forest. Thanks to that, the fauna here is identified as the most diverse. 1,906 species belonging to 6 classes have been identified (including: 132 species of mammals; 343 species of birds; 51 species of amphibians; 63 species of reptiles; 119 species of fish; 1,198 species of insects).

Mr. Tuan also shared a very valuable piece of information, that is, by 2019, after many years of implementation, Pu Mat National Park officially set up camera traps covering the entire park. Thanks to that, hundreds of rare animal species have been recorded, many of which are listed in the Vietnam Red Book and the IUCN Red List... This shows that Pu Mat is a hot spot for the conservation of endangered and rare species at the national and international levels.

Before saying goodbye to us, Mr. Tuan and many other officers and employees of Pu Mat National Park expressed many more concerns. Because in tropical jungle conditions like in Pu Mat National Park, the terrain is rugged, the climate is humid, the equipment is easily damaged, maintenance, battery replacement, and data extraction from camera traps are not simple. Not to mention, these types of equipment are often expensive, very costly to purchase and maintain.

In addition, the serious decline in the number of individuals due to illegal hunting and habitat loss has made the probability of encountering rare animals increasingly low. A photo of a tiger taken in the middle of the deep forest is not only a rare moment, but also a vivid proof of the fragile existence of wild symbols on the brink of extinction...