The Endangered Primate Rescue Center (EPRC) is operated through a collaborative partnership between Zoo Leipzig in Germany, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Vietnam.

The center was established by the Frankfurt Zoological Society in 1993 after two Delacours’ langurs(Trachypithecus delacouri), were confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade. From that first confiscation, rescued animals came from all over Vietnam to be rehabilitated at the EPRC, which was at the time the only rescue center of its kind in South east Asia. The rescued animals stayed at the EPRC rather than being released because the hunting pressure was too high to guarantee the safety of the animals post release. Instead the animals were kept in natural social groupings to promote breeding, with the long-term objective to secure habit for eventual reintroduction of captive bred animals. 

Now the center is home to approximately 170 primates from 15 species. Many of these species are not housed anywhere else in the world and include some of the rarest primates on earth, such as the Cat Ba langur (Trachypithecus poliocephalus), Delacours’langur and Grey-shanked douc langur (Pygathrix cinerea).

The EPRC has already released Delacours’ langurs, Hatinh langurs (Trachypithecus hatinhensis), Bengal Slow loris (Nycticebus bengalensis) and Pygmy loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus). Future plans are to continue reintroductions of these species and to establish reintroduction programs for other priority species into safe habitat throughout Vietnam.

As research is an essential component of successful rehabilitation and conservation of Vietnams primate fauna, the EPRC supports researchers from numerous institutions both locally and internationally in undertaking research into taxonomy, biology, and behavior. The aim is to provide unique opportunities to researchers and to utilize results to make improvements to captive care, health care, rehabilitation, re introductions and education.