Vũ Quang National Park Explained

Vũ Quang National Park
Alt Name:	Vườn quốc gia Vũ Quang
Iucn Category:	II
Location:	North Central Coast
Map:	Vietnam
Nearest City:	Hà Tĩnh
Coordinates:	18.2917°N 105.4083°W
Area:	550.28 km^2
Established:	2002
Governing Body:	People's Committee of Hà Tĩnh Province

Vũ Quang National Park is a national park in Vũ Quang District, Hà Tĩnh Province, North Central Coast, Vietnam.^[1] This park contains biodiversity. Saola and giant muntjac are species found in this park. Vũ Quang is a remote forested region of Vietnam, in which several new species of deer and antelope have been discovered since the 1990s.^[2] Some are so new that scientific description is still pending, although most have local names.

The area was declared a forest reserve in 1986 and a National Park in 2002. The National Park has an area of 212 square miles (550 Square kilometers).

List of new animals

New animals from Vũ Quang and surrounding areas:

• Saola or Vu Quang ox (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis)
• Quang khem ("slow deer")
• Giant muntjac (Megamuntiacus vuquangensis) - the world's largest muntjac.
• Mangden ("black deer")
• Linh dương ("holy goat") (Pseudonovibos spiralis) - this or a similar species has been seen in Cambodia, where its name is kting voar
• Northern white-cheeked gibbon^[3]

In addition, Vũ Quang is home to five new species of fish:

• Parazacco vuquangensis
• Crosscheilus vuha
• Pararhoedus philanthropus
• Pararhoedus equalitus
• Oreoglanis libertus

In addition to these animals, there are some tantalising glimpses of more:

• a large, cream-coloured slow loris seen in Hanoi Zoo by Doug Richardson, assistant curator of mammals at London Zoo in 1994;
• a black muntjac seen in Laos by Dr George Schaller of New York's wildlife Conservation society in 1994;
• the skull and some meat from the Vietnamese warty pig Sus bucculensis was given to Dr Schaller on the same visit. The species was first described in 1892 but no physical evidence for it was ever secured.

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2023-05-05 . Ones who silently support the steps of the 'Asian unicorn' . 2023-09-05 . vietnamagriculture.nongnghiep.vn . vi.
2. Nguyen Van . Ngoc . Nguyen Viet . Hung . Hoang Thi . Binh . Tagane . Shuichiro . Toyama . Hironori . Son . Hoang Thanh . Tran Viet . Ha . Yahara . Tetsukazu . 2018 . Lithocarpus vuquangensis (Fagaceae), a new species from Vu Quang National Park, Vietnam . PhytoKeys . 95 . 15–25 . 10.3897/phytokeys.95.21832 . 1314-2011 . 5804287 . 29440965 . free .
3. Web site: Hoa Nguyen Thi - Local Community-Based Conservation of Critically Endangered Gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys) in Vu Quang NP, Vietnam - The Rufford Foundation . 2023-09-05 . www.rufford.org.