Lang Son: A precious fish is being eradicated

In a survey of vegetation in the Mau Son mountain range, the staff of the Northeastern Forest Seed Joint Stock Company accidentally discovered reptiles living along the water streams, the puddles on the mountains. Mau Son.

The young Dao women and the toad fish caught (Photo: TP, ND)

Determined to be an amphibian, with a tail, the delegation brought this reptile species to Hanoi for assessment. The result was unexpected, this is a species of toad fish in the Red Data Book of Vietnam and is also the only species recognized to have many extinct dinosaur species.

Talking to us, Mr. Hoang Van Minh, an officer in the survey team said: Here, he felt strange because every household had one or two jars of alcohol of this reptile species. Not only soak wine, there are some sweet women (ethnic people) who also caught this species to serve as medicine for asthma, rickets .

Through Mr. Minh's words, we went to the Mau Son range at a height of 1,500 meters above sea level. Ms. Hoang Thi Lay, a house in Pacay village, Cong Son commune, Cao Loc district (Lang Son), guided us to go deep into the forest to a small stream. Not waiting long, looking closely at the small water, I saw each pair, each pair of " hugged " fish floating on the turbid water.

We continue to walk into the area of ​​Tham Diu, Pac Don, Ngan Po . Where to go, Ms. Luu also confirmed that there are many species of this fish living. However, at this time, there were many " hunters " rushing to find .

A " hunter " with the name of Trieu Hung Sot said: At first I just went to catch this " water gecko " for my father to cure alcohol. Later, there were people who ordered a bottle of wine with 15 children, costing 150 thousand. Seeing money, many people living around the area also took advantage of catching fish to earn extra income.

Toad fish was discovered by Bourret scientist in Vietnam in 1934. This species was included in the Vietnam Red Book, toadfish belong to group 1B (group with special strict protection, no exploitation) in Decree 32 government.However, this fish is standing on the verge of extinction.

This fish has an elongated shape, a slightly narrow head, wide mouth, protruding protruding eyes, brown back, and prickly skin. Along the back, there are large edges, red skin, bright orange skin. The foreleg has 4 fingers, the 5-foot hindquarters, looks very similar to the image of dinosaurs rebuilt by computer or shown on television. Looking at Mr. Soi's basket, we saw about 20 " geckos " in it. Mr. Soi shared: unlike other fish species, this species is very " naive " to nature so it is easy to catch.

The leading professor of Le Nguyen Ngu amphibian species (working in the Department of Biology - Hanoi National University of Education) commented: Through the samples of fish brought back, this is a rare and precious species of toad fish in Vietnam. . This species of toad fish currently exists only in Tam Dao ecological area (Vinh Phuc), Xuan Son National Park (Thanh Son - Phu Tho) and now is Mau Son mountain area (Lang Son). The risk of extinction of this species is very high, because the living environment is increasingly limited.