A pangolin, three slow lorises and 220 second chances in Vietnam's cave country

The release team at Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park works species by species: each animal gets a health check, a judgement on whether it can survive alone, and a release site chosen for its habitat, food and shelter. On 8 October the park returned 17 rescued animals to its forests — seven Indochinese pig-tailed macaques, three pygmy slow lorises, two brown hornbills, two crested goshawks, a crested serpent eagle, a Hatinh langur and a Sunda pangolin, all of them on Vietnam's lists of endangered, precious and rare species. It was the park's fifth release of 2026, bringing the year's total to 220 animals back in the wild. The releases are supervised by the Phong Nha forest ranger station and the local commune — quiet, careful work that turns confiscated and injured wildlife back into wild neighbours.

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: institutional program