On July 10, the Central Coastal Nature Museum said it had just received a specimen of a rare wild animal donated voluntarily by Mr. V.T.M. (resident of Thuan Hoa ward, Hue city).
According to information from the donor, the specimen was given by a friend about 10 years ago and is kept by the family. Recognizing that the specimen is valuable for research, conservation and display, Mr. M. proactively contacted the museum to hand it over.
After receiving information, museum professional staff surveyed, checked the current status, made a record of receipt and preliminarily identified specimens with morphological characteristics similar to the leopard species (Neofelis nebulosa).
According to the Central Coastal Nature Museum, leopards are distributed from the northern provinces to the Central Highlands region. This species is classified as Extremely endangered (CR) in the Vietnam Red Book 2024, Nearly endangered (VU) according to the IUCN Red List 2025, belonging to Appendix I of the CITES Convention and Group IB according to current regulations.
In the coming time, the specimens will be inspected, technically processed, preserved, identified, verified for origin and completed management dossiers according to regulations before serving research and display work.
Representatives of the museum assessed that people's voluntary handover of wildlife specimens contributes to supplementing the source of specimens for research, education and raising community awareness about biodiversity conservation. The unit also recommends that people when discovering or storing wildlife specimens should proactively contact functional agencies or specialized units to be guided on handling according to regulations.
