Economic Growth In Vietnam Imperils Rare Animals

If a half-century of war was destructive to the wild animals of Vietnam, two decades of peace are proving even worse.

The Indochina tiger, which once roamed the countryside, is rarely seen. Elephants, bears, peacocks, the clouded leopard, deer, monkeys and other native wildlife are disappearing because of rampant poaching and large-scale destruction of their forest habitat. Even the deadly cobra is in full retreat.

At greatest risk are certain brightly colored monkeys called langurs that exist in the wild only in Vietnam and now are on the verge of extinction.

But a collection of American and German zoos and the American branch of the Swiss-based World Wildlife Fund are working with the Vietnamese to save imperiled species.

“You have wildlife that somehow managed to survive 50 years of warfare but may not survive the next 15 to 20 years of economic growth,” warned Karen Killmar, associate curator of mammals at the San Diego Zoo.

“In many ways, Vietnam was closed to outside ideas for many years and missed the entire environmental movement,” said World Wildlife Fund official David Hulse in Hanoi, Vietnam.