A guided tour at the InterContinental Danang offers a chance to catch a glimpse of one of the rarest primates in the world
This probably sounds a little daft, but I’ve come to a luxury five-star resort in Vietnam to see monkeys.
But not just any old monkeys.
Not those blasted macaques like the ones that try to sit on your head at the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary in Ubud or the ones that bathe in the hot springs of snowy Nagano Prefecture in Japan.
When you have the responsibility of being set in a nature reserve like this, you’re really taking on a lot of responsibility
I’ve come to the InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort in central Vietnam in hope of catching a glimpse of the more civilized and much rarer red-shanked douc langur.
Vietnam has one of the most diverse populations of primates in the world and is home to three types of douc langur – all of which are critically endangered.
Population studies in the jungles of Son Tra Peninsula where the resort is located just 30 minutes by car from Danang International Airport estimate 1,500 red-shanked douc langurs live here. In total, it’s believed there are just 2,000 in Vietnam, so I’ve definitely come to the right spot.
But I’m not on this mission alone today to see these shy creatures of the treetops who, I surprisingly learn, don’t eat ripe fruit because they can’t digest sugar without it fermenting in their rather rotund bellies and causing one hell of a belly ache.
Instead, I’ve got resident British zoologist Anthony Barker taking me on a personal tour of the 39 hectare property in one of the resort’s electric buggies that cart guests back and forth to their rooms during their stay.
“The doucs are almost solely arboreal, except for eating the odd piece of unripe fruit,” he tells me from behind the wheel as we carefully negotiate our way past a buggy full of guests heading the opposite way for breakfast, “so they very rarely come to the floor of the forest.”
I crane my neck to look up into the lush canopy of foliage above us that rises some 700 meters above sea level and blankets 60 square kilometers of pristine wilderness just 10 kilometers outside of Danang and wonder if today will be my lucky day.
“We try to educate guests and other visitors that the red-shanks aren’t normal monkeys like the macaques we also have on the peninsula that eat just about everything,” he says.
Anthony himself is a rare species. He’s said to be one of just a few resident zoologists at resorts around the world, so I feel like I’m in good hands as we zig-zag our way along the narrow paths of the steep mountain on which this stunning resort is built.
He’s also the recent recipient of the World Tourism Network (WTN) Tourism Hero Award in recognition of his outstanding conservation efforts that include collaboration with local authorities and NGOs on projects and the education of communities and staff members at the resort about the importance of conservation.
“It really is one of the only places in the world where you can see them because the other populations have been so disturbed – they don’t like humans very much at all,” he tells me with one eye on where we’re going and the other looking for telltale signs like half-eaten leaves, discarded branches and poop that indicate these long-limbed and slender leaf-eaters may be within close proximity to us.
But as Anthony points out the tropical almond trees that are a favourite of the red-shanks’ and the natural bridges they provide so the population doesn’t get fragmented and “islanded” giving them access to feeding trees and “home trees” on the resort grounds during the stormy season, something tells me I may not get a chance to see these most handsome of animals today. The sun is already getting higher and hotter, more than likely forcing them deeper into the cool of the shade somewhere else on the mountain.
I still wonder if we’re being watched, though and ask Anthony if human encroachment on their habitat is the main reason why red-shanked douc langurs switch to high alert whenever they come into contact with humans.
“One of their main threats is poaching because they’re prized on the black market for traditional Chinese medicine,” he explains. “They’re similarly valued to rhino horns, but with the red-shanks, it’s for their brains. It’s believed that eating their brains has magical properties for human health.”
Indeed, Vietnam has a serious poaching problem that has left some of its 27 different species of primates on the verge of extinction. It’s believed, for example, that just 67 Cat Ba langurs near the World Heritage Site of Ha Long Bay in northern Vietnam remain.
While not under such immediate threat as their northern cousins, the red-shanked douc langur, so named because of its rusty red-coloured legs from the knees down, remains a target of poachers and is at-risk of greater habitat loss from tourism over-development around Danang.
“The best thing is education when it comes to this,” says Anthony who understands better than anyone his juggling act of being a champion of conservation while representing a property that has been criticized in the past for encroaching on the habitat of the very endangered species he’s now working hard to protect.
“What I’m trying to do is set an example here for other properties in a similar situation, because when you have the responsibility of being set in a nature reserve like this, you’re really taking on a lot of responsibility. The world is becoming more crowded, so we really need to come up with conservational ways in which we can live harmoniously with nature. I would love it if other properties could make a stand like we have here and start implementing ways they can have a relationship whereby humans and wildlife benefit together.”
Indeed, since Anthony arrived in 2019, the douc langur population has flourished, building on the efforts of the resident zoologist before him. And importantly, poaching attempts on the peninsula, at least in the proximity of the resort, have all but been eradicated.
He’s even witnessed the rare phenomenon of two sets of twins being born into the population over the last few years, along with the enviable privilege of being able to regularly monitor a healthy family with more than 20 members that spends countless hours feeding in the trees Anthony and the resort have protected and nurtured especially for them.
In addition, he’s overseen the planning, development and construction of the Discovery Centre at the resort due to open this year which will not only aim to educate younger generations of Vietnamese about the unique diversity of their country’s precious primate populations, but also drive funding campaigns for further research into them in collaboration with NGOs like GreenViet so they can continue doing the amazing work they do.
“I like to think we’re helping,” Anthony says as he pulls up the buggy out front of my room after an enlightening tour that has impressed upon me the importance of conserving such wonderful animals and how resorts and the travel industry at-large can play an integral role in doing so.
While I haven’t got to see or have a close encounter with any of the monkeys he’s told me so much about, I leave thinking it’s probably for the best anyway.
Follow Matt on Instagram at @mattcowansaigon
All photos provided by InterContinental Danang
A version of this article first appeared on travelandleisureasia.com
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