Posted on August, 19 2015

The journey from a reluctant logger to bird whisperer…

Truong Cam is a special man. People say that when he sings the songs of birds, his voice does not change. 37 Years ago, when Cam was 10 years old, he realised that he could sing the songs of the birds.
Cam said, "Back then, my father often entered the forest and cut down the trees, caught the birds and sold them in the local market for money to buy rice."
"One afternoon, while practicing my singing, I realised that I had mimicked the sound of one of the
nearby birds  I was really surprised to hear the bird sing back to me. "It was then that Cam started to learn the different sounds that the birds’ made, to help his father catch more birds to sell.
After many years of logging in the surrounding forests, Cam and his father became skilled at searching deep inside Bach Ma forests for the more valuable pieces of woods, “I watched and mimicked the things that my father did, as picking and marcotting a branch of tree after cutting down a big one, or leaving the young bird nests when catching them," Cam said, with a careworn voice. He tried to explain that he understood that what he was doing was prohibited, but that he had to in order to feed the family and survive - a long-sealed fate between him and the forest, passed down from his father. He knows, his debt to the forests.
Cam now works as a forest ranger and although he earns less than he did while hunting and logging in the forest, he doesn’t hesitate to put the ranger uniform on and takes pride in his work because he knows this is his chance to repay the birds. To repay the forest.
In 1988 , captured a Crested Argus from Loc Tri commune, Phu Loc ward  and was struggling to take it to Hue province, in the hope of selling the bird for more money. He was faced by Forest Rangers.  He was aware that this species was listed in the Red Book (meaning that it is protected by the law), so they forced him to write a report to commit that he would never violate the law like this again, and to clearly state in the report how he captured the precious bird.

The becoming of a birds’ music conductor…

When WWF heard about Truong Cam and Bach Ma National Park, they decided to help him nurture his talents in a positive way and invited him to join the research survey for the Crested Argus. "It was around March (of 1988), the time of pheasants’ mating season so they were slightly difficult to trap. After several days with no sign of any pheasants, the group were gradually becoming more and more despondent and started questioning whether my captured pheasant was from another area. Finally, I found their trail, and the pheasants responded to my knocking on the trees. Hence, we were able to trap a mature Crested Argus, with nearly 2-meters long tails feathers, near the forests in Nam Dong district,” he happily recalled. "The WWF experts were totally thrilled; they hugged me so tight and said that it was the very first time he had seen this species in Bach Ma forest.” They put the tracking device on the pheasant and release it back into the wild. Following this incredible discovery, Truong Cam was offered a job by the National Park director, Mr. Huynh Van Keo and WWF experts have been dedicated to the conservation of Bach Ma National Park, since this discovery.
After Cam was offered a job he was sent on a training course at the Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry and began a detailed research project on The distribution and development of Crested Argus species in Bach Ma National Park, which received a 10/10 result. He later traveled to Nor Pas De Pais, in France, where he surprised the French with his abilities level of professionalism and skill set during the training programme.
"Birds are a very communicative species. They sing when they are socialising, eating, enchanting partners, and challenging competitors for territory and especially crying out in horrible shrieks when they're in danger. When I patrol the area, I often talk to the birds, and I am assured they hear when they answer me. When there is a hint of threat to the birds, we strengthen our forest guards patrolling and ambushing" he said.
He used-to-be logger and was familiar with the sound of big falling trees and the mother bird crying for her young crying birds as they fall to the ground. But now he is becoming more sensitive to the noises and their different tones. "I am afraid for the birds and fear when I see the birds flying up in a panic when there are forest fires. I am especially fearful when I hear the big noise of a falling tree, knowing that the birds are losing their home and family," he stressed.
Guests and Tourists are always enticed by Truong Cam and his long lasting conversations with the birds during his special bird tour. There were some aggressive male birds, following and challenging him along the way in the forest, as he had accidently sang the song of another male bird seducing their partners. He said he did not aim to show off his talents with tourists but rather to share their thoughts with them, knowing that birds can also love, and show jealousy, as humans do.
Truong Cam can sing beautifully. He plays guitar. He also uses anything that appears on the table, chopsticks, spoons, forks, and cups to form a unique orchestra. In the morning, in July when the cold still slightly wrapped in the night dew, he quietly sits reciting every word of a famous song composer that has passed away. He said, the song is about the pain when people lose their loved ones, "as the birds were away from the family, from the blue sky” .The song sounds sad but he was not, he thought about his two children growing up day by day as he named them Bao Lam and Bao Long. The elder child, Bao Lam (Precious Forest), also can sing the birds’ song. And he believes one day, his son will follow his steps to protect the forests.