Wildlife on Cat Ba Island

As one of Vietnam's world biosphere reserves, Cat Ba National Park has the most biodiversity in our country and is an attractive eco-tourism destination in Hai Phong city.

Cat Ba National Park is located in Tran Chau town, Cat Hai district, more than 40km from Hai Phong city center. The park has a natural area of over 17,000 hectares, including 11,000 hectares of forest and more than 6,500 hectares of sea surface, the strictly protected area is 800 hectares of primeval forests.

With a favorable geographical location, convenient transportation and many beautiful landscapes, the garden has many conditions to develop ecotourism .

Due to the terrain, geology, climate, and hydrology, Cat Ba National Park has formed many different types of forests such as evergreen forests on limestone mountains, flooded forests on high mountains, and coastal mangrove forests. Along with that is the sea with near-shore coral reefs, cave systems, valleys, etc. In 2004, Cat Ba archipelago was recognized by UNESCO as a world biosphere reserve.

Cat Ba National Park has long been an attractive trekking destination. The terrain constantly changes from flat roads, gentle slopes interspersed with rugged rocky mountains that will make you excited to conquer. This is a patrol route of the forest rangers, quite easy to go so visitors can freely explore, learn about the flora and fauna, and take photos to check-in next to ancient trees.

According to statistics, Cat Ba National Park has up to 1,585 species of forest plants, including many precious woods such as lat hoa, lim xet, kim giao, go trang, cho dai... The park has 282 species of animals living in the forest, 538 animals living on the seabed, 196 species of marine fish, 771 species of terrestrial plants, 23 species of mangrove plants, 75 species of seaweed, 177 species of coral...

In particular, Cat Ba archipelago has up to 60 rare endemic species listed in the Vietnam Red Book such as: white-headed langur, white-thighed langur, spotted crow, black squirrel...; plants include Chinese smilax, lat hoa, kim giao, sen mat. Especially in Trung Trang area, there is a kim giao forest, an endemic tree species that lives in groups on an area of tens of hectares in the center of the park. According to a recent survey, Cat Ba currently has only more than 60 white-headed langurs.

Heritage Magazine