Sickly Baby Langur arrives at WFFT for Treatment

A few days ago a baby dusky langur (Trachypithecus obscurus) was brought into WFFT by people who had acquired him as a pet only 10 days prior. He was very sick and had been vomiting for the time they had being keeping him, they wanted our vet team to treat him and hand him back. We explained to them that we are unable to do this as we do not condone nor support keeping wild animals as pets, thankfully they handed him over to us to care for. They had been feeding him fruits such as papaya and watermelon. We commonly see this species being illegally kept as pets, often being fed the completely wrong diet of ripe fruits, this often results in severe sickness and ultimately the death of these poor babies. This little ones name is Pangpond, he is around 4 months old and from what we were told he came from the Khao Sam Roi Yot area, the same place we rescued and released the adult langur last week. It is most likely that his mother was illegally poached from the wild and killed, and he was then sold on as a pet.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists the dusky langur as Near Threatened (NT). Hunting for food and the pet trade are major threats, as is habitat loss and degradation, due to expansion of agricultural practices and urbanization throughout its range. Considering the extensive habitat loss that has taken place within the range of the species, there is reason to believe that this species is in decline.

Pangpond is currently receiving round the clock care from our team, he is still very sick, we are all hoping he will recover. All to often young langurs are brought to us for emergency care mostly due to the incorrect diet people feed them, unknowingly slowly killing them by feeding them fruit. Keep Wildlife Wild and not a Pets!!!