On November 03, the Deputy Director of Quang Ngai’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said local rangers had sought the help of district police, Ba To District’s People’s Procuracy, and relevant authorities looking into the case of five gray-shanked doucs shot and killed in sub-zone 426’s forests among the mountains of Ba Trang Commune, Ba To District.
On the night of October 08, forest rangers were on patrol in the forests around Kon Doc Village when they saw two individuals on motorbikes showing suspicious activities, and requested to inspect their belongings.
Upon this, both subjects discarded the possessions and fled into the tree lines. The on-scene team discovered two backpacks containing the carcasses of five douc langurs, weighing 8-15 kg each. They also seized one motorbike, one air tank used to refill makeshift air guns, 53 lead bullets, one silencer, among other evidence.
At the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, the doucs were determined to be five critically endangered gray-shanked douc langurs listed in Vietnam’s and the IUCN’s Red List. All five carcasses were then preserved in a frozen evidence storage supervised by Ba To District’s Forest Protection Department.
Upon being informed of the case, on October 20, Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh issued a document requesting Quang Ngai authorities to promptly launch an investigation and report back.
Inspectors have identified the two perpetrators, Pham Van A Long, 31, and Pham Van Ten, 25, both residents of Ba To commune, Quang Ngai province. So far, they have admitted to shooting the five doucs and a flying squirrel for meat.
