Wildlife in Cat Tien

Nguyen Anh The (often called Andy Nguyen, born in 1984), is a wildlife photography enthusiast, living in Ho Chi Minh City and a guide for wildlife tours in Vietnam. He is also the owner of the website  Vietnambirds , introducing bird and wildlife observation tours, including Cat Tien National Park. This type of tour is picky, usually for nature enthusiasts and domestic and foreign scientific research experts. The entrance ticket to the garden is 60,000 VND/person. Stretching over 3 provinces of Dong Nai, Lam Dong and Binh Phuoc with more than 80,000 hectares surrounded by 90 km of Dong Nai River, Cat Tien National Park is about 150 km from Ho Chi Minh City. This is one of the national parks with abundant resources and biodiversity and is an eco-tourism destination. the ideal experience of observing and photographing wild animals and plants in Vietnam. The road from the administrative center of Cat Tien National Park to Bau Sau is about 14 km long. In particular, there is a 5 km walk through the forest to observe precious wood species such as hundred-year-old yew trees, orangutan trees, red oak trees or typical vines in the forest such as bamboo and climbing cow's hoof. In particular, Bau Crocodile is home to freshwater crocodiles (or Siamese crocodiles, the scientific name is  Crocodylus siamensis ) is rare. Visitors can rent a boat to see crocodiles. They usually lie with their heads and eyes floating on the water, taking care to follow the instructions of rangers and guides when observing. After the summer rains, when butterflies appear in large numbers in Cat Tien, they fly on the trail and through the trees. The colorful butterfly wings shine by the puddle to create an attractive picture. Cat Tien National Park has a diverse and rich fauna with 1,529 species, including 109 species of reptiles, including the southern cobra, taken in a corner of Cat Tien forest. On the picture is an Indochinese venom-spewing cobra ( Naja siamensis ). "The profession of a wildlife tour guide is rarely followed, in addition to passion, it is necessary to understand the biodiversity as well as the behavior of each species. For example, distinguishing birds by their songs, can help visitors observe animals and snakes that are inherently trying to hide in the jungle," said Mr. Andy Nguyen. In addition, the tour guide must always note that guests leave their garbage in the right place so that the forest is always green, clean, not carved, graffiti on forest trees and keep quiet so as not to affect wildlife. With 351 species, accounting for about 42% of the total number of bird species in Vietnam, including many rare species, Cat Tien is like a "miniature country" of Vietnamese forest birds. Red-winged green woodpeckers ( lesser yellownape ), a popular bird in Cat Tien National Park. The bird has a prominent yellow crest from the top of the head to the neck, the upper body is blue with red primary wing feathers, the lower body has many white stripes, the male bird has red feathers on the top of the head. Lemongrass or kingfisher ( Banded Kingfisher ) has an average length of 22 cm. The highlight of this species is the "fashionable wings" with blue-black stripes, which is a relatively common settler from the Central to the South, often found in Cat Tien. Swallowing the golden belly ( orange-breasted trogon ) is one of the beautiful birds, with a colorful plumage with an average size of about 28 cm. Red Cash Chicken ( Germain's Speacock Pheasant with a charming and arrogant beauty like carrying sparkling green jewels. They are shy birds, often living around bushes, endemic and in danger of extinction. Photographing this bird is a big challenge, many people spend several years taking pictures but are unsuccessful, have to stay in one place and get bitten a lot because there are many squeezes here in the rainy season. Zebra-bellied tail ( bar-bellied pitta ) is one of the birds that many people want to admire the most when coming to Cat Tien National Park. In order to take a photo of the zebra-bellied tail, Andy had to create a site (location) where the bird could come to feed, spending months of patience to give the bird a familiar reflex. And set up a camouflage tent about 10-15 m away from where the bird comes to feed, so that guests can get into the tent and sit quietly watching the bird come, avoiding making noise. When the bird slowly appeared in the admiration and breath of the visitors, he focused on taking a lot of pictures. Cat Tien National Park recognizes the diversity of 113 species of animals. Particularly, primates include red-faced monkeys, pig-tailed monkeys, black-footed langurs, and yellow-cheeked black apes ( Yellow-cheeked Gibbon ) and coolies, both of which belong to group 1B - endangered, rare animals, are at a dangerous level in the World Red List and are strictly protected. The yellow-cheeked black gibbon (pictured) lives in trees up to 30 m high, the male is black, with feathers on the sides of the cheeks yellow, and the female is yellow, with a black crown of feathers on the top of the head. They live in families of 3 to 5 individuals, including parents and children. This is a species with a very high territorial conservative behavior, if the colony's habitat is narrowed or divided, they will continue to stay there instead of going elsewhere. Small coolies ( Pygmy Loris ) is also included in the Red Book of Vietnam and the world, with the outstanding characteristics of gentleness and big round eyes. Small coolies are usually nocturnal, in areas of bamboo forests or bamboo interspersed with wood. Wildlife tours organized by Mr. Andy Nguyen are usually all-inclusive, the price for one guest is about 2-3 million VND/day, including the cost of accommodation, tickets and transportation in the park. If you only hire guidance services, the rest of the cost is paid by yourself, the rental price is 800,000 - 1.2 million VND/day. Photo: Andy Nguyen According to VnE