Traces of gaur found in central nature reserve

Park rangers found traces of a herd of gaur, a rare type of wild ox, in a nature reserve in central Quang Tri Province on Saturday.

During a field trip on Mount Voi Mep in Bac Huong Hoa Nature Reserve Area, rangers found gaur hoof prints and droppings.

Earlier, a camera trap on the mountain top, set up by the Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Initiative Project (BCI), captured images of a herd of more than 10 gaur, including two males, each weighing an estimated 1 ton.

The gaur, found in India, Indochina and on the Malay Peninsular, is rated a “vulnerable” species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Gaur are already extinct in Sri Lanka.

Since 1975, gaur have been sighted about 10 times in the Dakrong forest in Vietnam’s Quang Tri Province, which borders Laos.

About 500 gaur are believed to remain in Vietnam, with about 10 percent of the population in Cat Tien National Park, north of Ho Chi Minh City, according to the Wild Cattle Conservation Project.