A Seacology expedition visited the project in November 2010. The group visited a floating ranger station, as well as one of the rangers in a remote part of Cat Ba Island. The relocation will likely take place within the next month. It is to be the first wildlife relocation to be attempted in Vietnam in several years. If the langurs cannot be lured out of their cave, the animals will be darted with tranquilizers.

The master plan and risk assessment have been translated and submitted to the local authorities, after which meetings were held with the Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development in Hanoi and with the Peoples Committee in Hai Phong. Both meetings went extremely well and the project has finally received all the necessary support from all the involved local authorities. Implementation of the master plan will be the next step.

In September, the CBLCP finalized a risk assessment for the translocation plan. The master plan will be finished in this month. The next steps will involve the translation and the delivery of these documents to the authorities and the subsequent discussion to finally agree on the entire translocation plan.

The catching net has been attached to the sleeping cave, and the project leaders are waiting for the langurs to access it – unfortunately, they rarely do so during the rainy season. Collars for the relocated langurs will also be ordered which will include both VHF and GPS tracking and a drop-off system for when the project is completed and the langurs have been successfully relocated.

As of April 2009, after fixing a rope and a test net at the cave, one Vietnamese bachelor student spent several weeks at the catching site to monitor the reaction of the langurs to the equipment, to collect data about home range size and with what frequency the langurs use the cave as a sleeping place. It was observed that the langurs accepted the equipment, even using it to access the cave. A design for the catching net was finalized by the technical staff of Zoo Muenster, and the equipment was transferred to Vietnam. The next step will be to fix the first parts of this equipment at the cave before the rainy season starts. In addition to preparing the catching site, several trips were organized to study various release sites in the sanctuary to make sure that the release will not be too close to other langur or macaque groups.

In 2007 project leaders assessed the habitat use and migration routes to determine suitable sites for catching and relocation. The best possible site for capture was determined to be a sleeping cave 40 feet above the forest floor. In early 2008 staff blocked off small niches in the cave for langur and human safety during the eventual capture. Plans for mid-2008 include continuing an assessment of the langurs’ response to staff activity and climbing equipment at the cave to determine the best method of capture.

Project coordinator Dr. Rosi Stenke and her colleagues are assessing the habitat use and migration routes to determine suitable sites for catching and relocation. They are scheduled to begin relocation in October 2007.