HANOI: A new group of critically endangered primates has been spotted in Vietnam, raising hopes the rare creatures may not be wiped out in the next decade as scientists had feared.
The Delacour's langur, black and white with a full face of whiskers, is indigenous to Vietnam, but their numbers have dwindled in recent years because of poaching and mining activity in the country's northern forests.
A team of scientists from Fauna and Flora International spotted a group of about 40 of the primates, mostly juveniles and infants, bringing their total population to less than 250.
"It's great news for this particular species because had we not found this new population, they were in grave danger of being wiped out within a decade," spokeswoman for FFI in Vietnam, Akofa Wallace, told AFP on Tuesday.
"The fact that they are breeding is brilliant news," she added.
FFI did not say where scientists spotted the langurs, whose habitat is threatened by mining activity in the area, including charcoal production.
They are also targeted by poachers who hunt them for meat, with their bones used for traditional medicine and their pelts for decoration.
The primate was discovered in northern Vietnam in the 1930s by French scientist Jean Theodore Delacour, and are only found in Vietnam.
