At the U Minh Ha national park in the southern province of Ca Mau, Nguyen Tan Truyen has been well known as the man who loves monkeys like his children.

The U Minh Ha forest rangers describe Truyen as the man who loves forest and forest animals more than his life. Local residents witnessed how Truyen took care for a baby monkey like a father taking care for his son. The moving story has been related by local residents in Tran Hoi commune to his children and grandchildren to educate the love to the nature of the next generations.

Truyen showed reporters a lot of pictures of the animals which have been shown to children at the lessons about the nature. One of the pictures showed a ca loc (a kind of fresh water fish) in Mekong Delta, which has a very big head and small and long body.

“The fish got deformed because the fisherman tried to inject electricity in it,” he explained. There are many things behind the image that Truyen can show to his students.

When asked about the baby monkey he is nurturing, Truyen related that one day in 2010, when he was on the duty for the forest fire prevention, he listened a groan in the bush and found a baby monkey, which as just as small as a mouse.

Truyen knew that in the place where he found the monkey, there were many traps set by the hunters. Baby monkeys always stick to mothers, and they would not separate from mothers even if the mothers die. 

Truyen guessed that the mother monkey fell into trap and could not escape; therefore, she tried to throw the baby into the bush, hoping that other monkeys would discover and rescue her baby.

Truyen found out that the trap and the mother monkey have been taken away, while the baby monkey shivered with cold and hunger. Then Truyen put the monkey into his coat to warm it and hurriedly returned to the national park.

He tried to warm up the monkey by applying oil on its body, then created a nest for it from the cotton box of instant noodle. Since the monkey was just born, and it still could not stand firmly, it could not eat any thing Truyen gave.

After some thought, Truyen decided to drive his motorbike for a distance of 10 kilometers to his friend’s house. Since the friend’s wife has just given birth, Truyen could borrow a feeding bottle from the friend to feed the monkey.

However, the feeding bottle could not help, because the monkey was too small to suck milk from the bottle. Therefore, Truyen had to pour every drop of milk into its mouth.

It took at least one hour to feed the monkey. He had to return to the national park every 3-4 hours to feed the monkey, because it would not eat anything else from other people. Truyen’s working office turned into the place to take care for the small monkey.

Truyen said that the monkey has been growing up rapidly, and now it can suck milk from the feeding bottle. Truyen spends most of his salary to buy milk for the monkey. Meanwhile, his children rarely can drink fresh milk like the small monkey.

However, the monkey did not stay with Truyen for a long time. One day, when it met a fellow creature, it decided to leave. 

In fact, the monkey wavered between leaving and staying with Truyen. It wanted to live together with other monkeys, but it really did not want to separate from Truyen. 

Truyen shed tears, but he encouraged the monkey to go to the forest.

Truyen said that he has been going through the U Minh Ha forest for the last year, but he has never met his monkey again.

Source: Dat Viet/ VNN