Hainan gibbon: World’s most critically endangered primate

Hainan gibbons use their long arms to swing from tree to tree, enabling them to easily gather forest fruits.

The world’s most critically endangered primate, the Hainan gibbon, is barely surviving. Only 30 remain on the planet, all restricted to a single patch of forest on China’s Hainan Island. Because the species is so precarious, each gibbon’s survival is vital.

At home in the canopy, Hainan gibbons use their long arms to swing from tree to tree, enabling them to easily gather forest fruits. They’re fearful of moving on the ground, which is why decades of forest fragmentation from logging and agricultural activities has isolated groups from one another, causing them to slowly die out.

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Habitat loss

After Typhoon Rammasun caused a massive landslide in Hainan in May 2015, destroying more of the gibbons’ habitat and opening gaps that exacerbated previous tree losses, Conservationists took emergency action.

They employed professional tree climbers to install one artificial rope bridge over the damaged section of forest—the first time such an intervention has been attempted with the species. The bridge consisted of two mountaineering-grade ropes strung over a 50-foot-wide gully between trees. They also installed motion-activated camera traps near the bridge.
Bridge of hope

A new study, published today in Scientific Reports brings welcome news: Gibbons are using the bridge, suggesting that this strategy can be used elsewhere in the forest to help the animals move around, mingle and find mates. At first, the gibbons ignored the bridge, so after waiting 176 days.

Rope techniques

Rather than swinging their arms along the ropes, as they do to grab tree branches, many of the gibbons began what conservationists call “handrailing.” They walked along one rope while holding the other above their heads for balance, similar to the way a person would use a handrail for stability.

Short-term fix

An estimated 2,000 Hainan gibbons remained in the wild during the 1950s, but by the 1970s, habitat loss and hunting had slashed their number to 10 individuals. In a drastic effort to save the species, the Hainan Gibbon Conservation Project monitored and researched those last holdouts, patrolled their territories for hunters, and planted trees. With the three-fold increase in their numbers today, the future for the Hainan gibbons is still precarious. Attempts to breed the species in captivity have failed.

 

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