Hanoi - Police in central Vietnam have arrested three men accused of killing seven langurs, an endangered monkey species, a forestry official said on Thursday.
The men were arrested Wednesday in the Van Ninh district in Khanh Hoa province while carrying the dead langurs out of the forest, the region's head forest warden, Phan Huy Thang, said.
The police seized the dead primates, which were initially identified as black-shanked douc langurs, as well as two rifles and nine rounds of ammunition, Thang said.
The poachers might have been assisted by the langurs' behaviour, the warden said.
If one of them is shot, other langurs tend to gather around it. "That creates good chances for poachers to kill all of them easily," Thang said.
Black-shanked douc langurs are listed on the red list of critically endangered species compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, an international organization dedicated to natural resource conservation, and are on Vietnam's own national red list.
Many officially endangered animals are hunted for their flesh and body parts in Vietnam, where they are widely believed to have medicinal and spiritual value. - Sapa-dpa