Red-shanked douc

After weeks of travelling through Vietnam, we realised that seeing wild animals in their natural habitat was not always easy. That is one reason why our morning on the Sơn Trà Peninsula, just a few kilometres from Da Nang, stayed with us so much. We had come with one very specific goal: to spot the red-shanked douc, one of the rarest primates in the region.

The red-shanked douc (Pygathrix nemaeus) is hard to mistake once you are lucky enough to see one: a pale face, grey and black fur, a long white tail and, above all, those extraordinary rust-red legs. The species is currently classified as Critically Endangered. Sơn Trà is one of its major strongholds: a 2017 GreenViet study estimated around 1,300 individuals on the peninsula. The nature reserve still gives visitors a chance to see them living freely in the trees, with no zoo and no staged encounter.

In our Da Nang article, we tell the story of how our search unexpectedly turned into a hike when we had to leave the scooter behind and continue on foot. Then luck finally came our way: we spotted them in the trees. There is never a guarantee that you will see one, and that is precisely what makes the encounter so special. Watching them move freely through their protected forest habitat became one of our favourite wildlife moments in Vietnam.

If you are visiting Da Nang, Sơn Trà is well worth the early start. Come for the forest and the scenery, keep looking up into the trees and treat a douc sighting as an incredible bonus. Most importantly, keep your distance, never feed them and let them remain wild. That is exactly how we loved discovering them.