The health of Ha Long Bay (correction)

This is a correction of our article entitled “The health of Ha Long Bay“, published on the 6th of April, 2019.

The serious correction is about the primates in the photos, labeled as langurs. Those are not langurs. Those are macaques that were introduced as a tourist attraction. The ones shown appear to be hybrids of non-native long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) crossed with Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). These animals were introduced to various islands in the region from the mid-1990s onward because the local governments and the tour operators found that tourists wanted to see wildlife and didn’t care if it was wild or not, nor if it actually belonged in the area.

These are some real pictures of Cat Ba Langurs:

The Cat Ba Langur (Trachypithecus poliocephalus) is only found on Cat Ba Island and only in three locations on the island, all of which are off limits to tourists. The White-headed Langur (Trachypithecus leucocephalus), mentioned several times in the article, is a different langur species found in Southern China. It is also critically endangered and appears to be the closest relative of the Cat Ba Langur, but is a distinctly different species. Its numbers are also much higher than those of the Cat Ba Langur.

The final note is more of a semantic clarification, the Cat Ba Langur Conservation Project is based in Vietnam and operates solely within Vietnam, but it was set-up by and all the support for it comes from German organizations. Currently we are administered by the Zoo Leipzig with a large amount of support from ZGAP and a lesser amount of support from the Allwetterzoo Münster. In the past the Allwetterzoo and ZGAP were the primary sponsors.

Received: 15.08.19, Ready: 19.08.19, Editors: FG.