Posted on 07 October 2015

In early September 2015, a joint wildlife survey team with members from WWF-Vietnam (part of the CarBi Programme), the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW, Germany), and the Quang Nam Saola Nature Reserve sighted a rare mammal in the forests of the Quang Nam Saola Nature Reserve: a Malayan Colugo (Galeopterus variegatus), also known as Flying Lemur.

The Malayan Colugo, Chồn bay or Cầy bay in Vietnamese, is an arboreal mammal that feeds on vegetation high in the forest canopy. It is one of the most agile gliding mammals, using enormous skin folds between its legs to sail from tree to tree. Although still relatively common in many areas of Southeast Asia, the species is believed to be rare in central Vietnam, because its populations have been decimated by illegal hunting, despite the fact that it is protected from exploitation and commercial purposes in Vietnam through Decree No. 32/2006/ND-CP. The sighting of this rare species, following the rediscovery of the saola in 2013 by WWF CarBi’s camera trapping programme, again highlights the biological importance of the Quang Nam Saola Nature Reserve, and is also one of the tangible results of the progressive Forest Guard Law Enforcement Model deployed in the Saola Nature Reserves during the past 5 years, with the support from WWF’s CarBi Programme.