Watch rare animals in Con Dao National Park

Monday - 05/06/2023 14:52

On the evening of April 28, Con Dao National Park celebrated its 30th anniversary. The habitat, species and natural ecosystems of forests and seas here are preserved almost intact

Mr. Nguyen Khac Pho - director of Con Dao National Park - said that in the early years of establishment, officials and staff of the park faced a lack of everything, from electricity, water to communications, vehicles between Con Son main island and small islands.
But with the fortitude, will and with the love for the homeland island and nature, Park’s generations of staff have stuck to and joined hands to build the Park. Thanks to that, up to now, the habitat, species and natural ecosystems of forests and seas in Con Dao National Park have been preserved almost intactly; and there are no wildfires.
“Currently, the coverage of major ecosystems such as corals, seagrasses, mangroves has been restored almost to its original state, leading to the recovery and development of marine populations, including many rare and precious species such as sea turtles, dugongs (sea cows), dolphins, giant clams ... and many other species”, Mr Pho informed.
Sea turtles are one of the endemic and rare species in Con Dao. From 1993 to 2022, there were nearly 12,700 visits of mother turtles to the beach to lay nearly 37,000 nests. Park staff have been protecting the eggs, hatched them and released nearly 2.5 million baby turtles into the sea. The number of mother turtles laying eggs in the period of 2010 - 2022 increased nearly 2 times compared to the period of 1993 - 2009...

Many rare animals in Con Dao

Con Dao National Park is located entirely on the administrative boundary of Con Dao district, Ba Ria - Vung Tau province, with a total area of nearly 20,000 hectares, in which the forest conservation component is nearly 6,000 hectares, the marine conservation component is 14,000 hectares. In addition, there is a marine buffer zone of 20,500 hectares.
Con Dao National Park has become an important wetland of the world (Ramsar site) and a natural heritage park of ASEAN.
The park currently has 1,077 species of vascular higher forest plants, of which 44 species were first discovered in Con Dao; 160 species of wild forest animals were discovered, including 8 rare species, 2 species named after Con Son; 1,725 species of marine creatures, 7 species of marine creatures are critically endangered, 67 species are endangered and are vulnerable.