Follow the foot of the bull - Cycle 1: Traces between the forest

After a lot of efforts of scientists, it was recently discovered good news from Nam Cat Tien National Park when the first images appeared dozens of bulls in the middle of the forest.

So the efforts of people have been paid off and a future will open up rare animals among this beautiful national garden. The lucky person who captured the bull's photo is the photographer Tang A Pung, a businessman who now lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City.

Moment of luck

Mr. Pac honestly: 'I am a photography enthusiast. Nearly two years of wandering in the garden, images of bulls always urged me and I always wished to one day meet them. '

' Nam Cat Tien National Park has more than 40 species in the red book. Of all the endemic species in this forest, except rhinos, no species is as difficult to access as the bulls' - Mr.Phu said.

Mr. Pon told that he had to lie down to hunt bulls for a photograph of his bulls every week, but not once. 'When I was waiting for bulls like that, it was too sad to do anything to make me turn on the camera and everything that happened where I sat, sometimes a movie of a bird making a nest, sometimes an image . .The spider spreads silk. In the archive I kept, there were also the recording files of the leaves and the sound of a strange bird . All of them were 'assets'! - Mr. Pung smiled happily.

Then the opportunity came, Mr. P recalled: 'It was on the afternoon of April 10, after hours of wandering in the forests photographing beasts, I climbed up and sat in the guardhouse of the forbidden forest of C3. , the Bull Mountain Preservation Station. Letting out with sleepiness, from nowhere, there was a barrier like a waterfall, black blocks looming over the grassland near the edge of the forest. These 'black masses' move when they are rushing, standing still still as rocks at a time closer to themselves. Oh man! It is a gaur, the animal that I have been searching for two years now! At that time, I could not even adjust the camera, one hand press the camera, and the other hand raised the camera to stutter .

Now that I think back to that moment, Mr. Pio's leg is still trembling with joy. He pressed the camera repeatedly to take advantage of the rare moments, deliberately not making a sound, but from a distance of 200 meters of bulls still found his position. The leader of the herd raised the horns and his eyes were fierce and looked at the stranger, and immediately the whole group also horned like war. Then suddenly they turned their heads and fled into the deep forest.

After taking a picture of the bull, do not catch up with Mr. Pau driving a car straight to the management board to supply the garden with materials. The most valuable in this set of photos is the appearance of a herd of about 14 individuals, full of both adult and juvenile individuals.

After watching the photos of Mr. Tang A Pau, deputy director of the ecotourism park of Nam Cat Tien National Park Nguyen Dinh Quoc Viet ransacked the photo and brought out a photo of a bull herd about ten years ago. It was a photo taken by some patrols who happened to capture it in 2002 but since then no one has taken a crowded group like this.

' This is a scientific evidence, making the conservation workers in Nam Cat Tien National Park more excited!' - Mr. Nguyen Dinh Quoc Viet said excitedly.

Dr. Chris Wazer, Ph.D., veterinarian, injects anesthetic, ready to use
for shooting chips of bulls - Photo : BD

'Missing'

One morning in the middle of a deep forest, a group of three scientists still worked hard to find traces of bulls. They are young foreign scientists hired to shoot chips with GPS devices to track cows in Nam Cat Tien National Park.

Dr. Chris Wazer, PhD, leader of the team, said that he was accompanied by two other PhDs who are experienced in the field of wildlife care, Mrs. Gabrielle Stalder and Mrs. Unlrike Streicher.

' The hardest part of chip shooting is approaching the herd. When approaching, an enchanted arrow will be fired so that the animal collapses. After that, the doctors will take care of the animal safely during anesthesia to wear a soft cable with a GPS global satellite navigation device on the cow's neck. From here, every travel journey will be transmitted to the server, making it easier to monitor conservation and research '- Dr. Chris said.

After several days of lingering to learn about the location and distribution of gaur in Nam Cat Tien National Park, one morning after the heavy rain the group decided to leave. The destination is defined as the forbidden forest area of ​​Nui Tuong, about 5km from the garden center.

Dr. Unlrike Streicher asserted that although many people have recently seen cows eat in this area, those cases are largely dependent on luck. From day and night, sometimes I had to walk a few kilometers to the edge of the forest from 4:00 am to 5:00 am but many days passed and no bulls appeared.

When everything was deadlocked, one afternoon the group was informed in the swamp area Bo Bo, about 30km from the garden, there was a herd of bulls. Early the next day, the group took a backpack to cut the forest for nearly two hours to get to the site.

Being busy walking in the middle of the forest, the guide suddenly stopped his legs, signaling people to step back. He said he had discovered the traces and the feces of a crowded cow herd, which is still very new. ' They are here!' - Dr. Chris uses a dry tree to trace a crawling footprint on the leaf litter and then opens the bag to hold a gun to shoot anesthetic on the barrel. It was a fairly simple gun, including a gas cylinder used to propel arrows and a viewfinder. The arrow is attached to a red glow device to help identify the animal while moving, in front of an anesthetic bottle.

Chris said the range of the gun was less than 150m, so finding a way to approach the herd would be more accurate. The choking moments slowly passed. When the "flattening" breaths of the bulls are adding a close second every second, they suddenly rush like a waterfall, and the cows pull together and run trees. The previous guide stood silently in regret. Dr. Chris now said: 'I see the head of the leader and two children!'.

After the 'catch up', the group returned in regret. On the way home, when walking through the forests, each of the trails was filled with bull footprints painted everywhere. On the grass in the swamp Bo Bo, traces of crowded herds are also melded with crushed grass, muddy muddy pools .