Biology Institute in Dalat

The Biology Institute lies on a hill of 1548.2meters high, in a pine forest 10 kilometers from Dalat City Center, on the way to Golden Stream. On arriving, the first surprising thing the catch tourist’s attention is the stone building standing quietly in a pine forest, with lots of windows and at its front, a remarkable cross bearing these two lines of Latin words,” Copiosa Apud Eum Pedemptio”, which means ‘Plenty of Grace in God’.

In fact, this was built in 1950 to be an Institute of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer belonging to Catholic Church. After Unification Day, local government decided to put it under public service. After several changes from one administrative unit to another, the building was transferred to the Tropical Biology Institute, which belongs to national Center of Science and Technology, named Biology Department Institute.

This institute does researches on chemistry, microbiology, botany and biological technology of in vitro multiplication. In addition Biology Department Institute also functions as a museum presenting rare species of both animals and plants in the West Plateau and Lâm Đồng province and as the tourist’s visiting place.
Calling at this place, tourists may admire various kinds of beautiful rare orchids, which are displayed in wood frames, including about 900 terrestrial orchid pots of inland and overseas origin, and about 1300 epiphyte orchids of different kinds. Biology Department Institute is conserving the genes of about 200 species of wild orchids as a provisory supply to later local economic development; these are species found in Lâm Đồng Province; including some famous names of Thanh lan, Thanh đạm, Tuyết ngọc and etc..., which are quite rare ones, or Red Shoe, which is considered one of the most beautiful in the world.

Its animal collection over the Highlands and the whole country is on display in 7 rooms. There are 378 specimens of 58 mammal species, 242 of 94 bird species, 42 of 32 amphibious species, 36 of 22 domestic animals and over 200 mounted specimens of insects. These specimens are all classified into class, order, family, genus and species, from invertebrates to highly developed animals, including marine ones like coral polyps, crabs, oysters; amphibians like snakes, constrictors; domestic animals like chickens, ducks, cows, sheeps; insects; birds; mammals and brainy animals like primates.

Also in display are specimen of species in the Red List, including endangered ones such as Tibetan bears, big Mangs, northern striped civets, browncheeked gibbons, elegant flying squirrels, red wolves, striped zibets, Malaysian bears, tigers, apricot hailed panthers, and etc..., or vulnerable ones such as chamois, black civets, silky hailed cats, fire leopards, long clawed otters, silky hairdo leopards, water iguanas, black leg Vọc, swine boars and etc. tourists must be fascinated by vivid natural postures of these specimens. When appealing us to save up Java hippopotamuses, giant pandas, elephants, scientists seem to this message of “being more friendly towards nature so that it would become man’s companion!”
Especially in display are two universe models donated to Viet Nam in 1989 by the former USSR.