BEIJING: Living in a single patch of subtropical karst forest covering less than 50 square kilometers between China and Vietnam, the cao vit gibbon is the second-rarest primate in the world, only behind the Hainan gibbon, which has a wild population of 37 individuals in six groups.
The critically endangered species, also known as the eastern black-crested gibbon, has an estimated population size of around 120 individuals.
However, in a paper published on Jan 4 in Scientific Reports, an open-access journal publishing original research, scientists from China, Vietnam and the United Kingdom estimated that the wild population of the gibbon was even smaller, according to a 2021 survey.
“We estimate it was comprised of 74 individuals in 11 family groups,” said Fan Pengfei, professor with Sun Yatsen University’s Life Science College, who is one of the article’s co-authors.
According to the researcher, whose team has been monitoring the gibbon’s population within China for years, it doesn’t mean that the population has declined. “In fact, the population appears to be growing, with new groups having formed in recent years,” he said.
The recent result came from a revised method for monitoring gibbons. Traditional methods, involving triangulation of groups from their songs, are relatively subjective and likely lead to measurement errors. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
