Endangered Primate Rescue Centre

Six of the primate species at the Endangered Primate Rescue Center exist nowhere else in captivity, including all three species of Douc langur, the grey-shanked, red-shanked and black-shanked. The centre sits inside Cuc Phuong National Park in northern Vietnam, caring for around 160 animals across 15 species and subspecies, nearly all rescued from the illegal wildlife trade or born here through a breeding programme that's produced several world-first captive births, including the Cat Ba langur and Delacour's langur. Two semi-wild forest enclosures, one covering five hectares, prepare qualifying animals for eventual release.

The red-shanked douc langur, sometimes called the queen of primates for its layered red, white and grey fur, lives here in social groups that spend much of the day grooming each other, while newly rescued infants are bottle-fed and monitored by the centre's own vets before joining a group. Around 400kg of fresh leaves goes out daily to feed the langurs alone, gathered by staff from across the surrounding forest. Since a first release of eight Hatinh langurs into Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in 2007, groups bred or rehabilitated here have gone on to repopulate Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve.