On World Environment Day June 5: A good sign at Pu Mat National Park
According to published scientific documents, long-tailed macaques in our country are only naturally distributed from Da Nang onwards. The suitable habitat of this monkey species is mangrove forests, forests on islands, or peninsulas on the mainland. In mangrove forests, they live mainly on the canopy of large trees. On islands, they sleep in caves, live in groups of 5-7 or larger, up to 30-40, are good at climbing, swimming, diving, foraging during the day, and their main food is fruits and young leaves in the forest, small animals: fish, shrimp, crabs, snails, mussels and insects.
According to published scientific documents, long-tailed macaques in our country are only naturally distributed from Da Nang onwards. The suitable habitat of this monkey species is mangrove forests, forests on islands, or peninsulas on the mainland. In mangrove forests, they live mainly on the canopy of large trees. On islands, they sleep in caves, live in groups of 5-7 or larger, up to 30-40, are good at climbing, swimming, diving, foraging during the day, and their main food is fruits and young leaves in the forest, small animals: fish, shrimp, crabs, snails, mussels and insects.
 |
Pha Lay is the name of a rocky mountain, in Thai it is Hoa Mountain, because the large rocks here have natural patterns, very beautiful, there are many caves, the forest is quite rich in plant species, many fruits, next to Khe Khang is a quite large stream flowing into Giang River (now dammed). Here, Pu Mat National Park has built a forest protection station, with conditions for monitoring and research.
On April 1, 2009 (after nearly 11 years), we visited our brothers at this station and learned about the existence and development of the long-tailed macaques. The rangers said that when they were released, there were quite fierce "battles" for territory between the long-tailed macaques and native monkeys, such as the red-faced macaque, the golden macaque...
However, they still exist and develop, possibly forming 3-4 large groups, and we have seen baby monkeys of different generations. Here, during the day they live in trees, eating fruits, and around noon they go to the forest edges along the stream, sometimes foraging on the stream bank, swimming underwater. In the afternoon, they gather and rest on the rocks above, and at night they may sleep in caves. At around 11 am that day, we observed them active in the bushes on the other side of the stream, a large group, with many generations. Obviously, the long-tailed monkeys have adapted to the new living conditions to develop in Pu Mat National Park.
Long-tailed macaques are valuable economic animals that can thrive in the wild. They need to be hunted in a planned manner to get their fur, food, and medicinal materials, while also attracting ecotourists to this place!
Architect Nguyen Dinh Vo
