Endangered primate spotted:

A new group of critically endangered primates

has been spotted in Vietnam, raising hopes the rare creatures may not be wiped out in the next decade as scientists had feared.

The Delacour’s langur, black and white with a full face of whiskers, is indigenous to Vietnam, but their numbers have dwindled in recent years because of poaching and mining activity in the country’s northern forests.

A team of scientists from Fauna and Flora International spotted a group of about 40 of the primates, mostly juveniles and infants, bringing their total population to less than 250.

“It’s great news for this particular species because had we not found this new population, they were in grave danger of being wiped out within a decade,” spokeswoman for FFI in Vietnam, Akofa Wallace, told AFP Tuesday. (AFP)