Family of three Delacour’s langur in Tràng An, Ninh Bình Province. — VNA/VNS Photo

NINH BÌNH — A baby Delacour’s langur has been born after its parents were released into the wild last year on Ngọc Island in Tràng An Landscape Complex, the northern province of Ninh Bình.

The langur baby was born half a month ago, weighing around 300 grams, and is now in good health, according to the Tràng An Landscape Complex Management Board. It is the first Delacour’s langur ever born in the complex.

Its parents were taken to the complex from the Cúc Phương Endangered Primate Rescue Centre in the northern province about a year ago.

The birth of the first Delacour’s langur is an encouraging signal for biodiversity conservation at the complex, according to Tilo Nadler from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Primate Specialist Group. It will pave the way for the establishment of a new population of the species listed as critically endangered by the IUCN.

The Tràng An Landscape Complex Management Board said the 2-hectare island provides a suitable habitat for Delacour’s langurs.

The board would coordinate with wildlife conservation experts and animal rescue organisations to release more Delacour’s langurs to the island in a hope that more langur babies would be born, it said.

The Delacour’s langur is a primate endemic to Việt Nam, first discovered by Jean Théodore Delacour in 1930 and described by Wilfred Hudson Osgood in 1932. It is among the 25 most endangered species in the world.

Currently, it is found mainly in the Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve in Ninh Bình Province, Kim Bảng forest in Hà Nam province and Lạc Thuỷ in Hoà Bình Province. — VNS