After 17 years of conservation efforts, the world’s most endangered primate population has now tripled. Hainan gibbons inhabit Hainan Island, a small tropical island off the coast of China, where in 1970 there were just 10 of their kind left. Since the conservation project began in 2003, the numbers now show 30 of these individuals can be found living high in the mountains of Hainan’s Bawangling Nature Reserve.
Philip Lo Yik-fui, Senior conservation officer at Kadoorie Conservation China, told South China Morning Post, “They are really intelligent animals. When they look at you, it feels like they are trying to communicate.” Well, someone listened! Kadoorie planted 80,000 fig and lychee trees in their natural habitat, which are important to the gibbon’s diet, to encourage the existing populations to meet and interact with one another.
Though the progress may be slow due to previously inadequate environment and a naturally slow birth rate within the species, evidence shows there is a brighter future ahead for these little creatures!
Keep swinging by for more “pawsitive” news! – Amanda E.
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