Satellite Reveals Possible Habitats for Rare Apes in China and Vietnam

Fan Peng-Fei of China's Dali University was worried the first time he entered the forest habitat of the critically endangered cao vit gibbon ( Nomascus nasutus ). The isolated forest, skirting the China-Vietnam border, had been heavily degraded by years of agricultural development, firewood collection and charcoal production. What little forest remained provided poor habitat for the arboreal gibbons, which are not adapted for life on the ground.The cao vit gibbons (also known as eastern black-crested gibbons) are probably lucky to have as much habitat as they do. Not so long ago scientists feared that the species had gone extinct. But in 2002--about 40 years after they were last seen--the conservation organization Fauna & Flora International (FFI) discovered a small population of 26 gibbons in northeastern Vietnam. In 2006 another 10 were located across the border in China. The two governments established conservation areas in 2007 and 2009, and FFI has since helped protect the habitat from further degradation and the gibbons themselves from being hunted. Today, after a decade of conservation work, the gibbons are bouncing back. Several births last year raised the population of cao vit gibbons to 129. Although the species is still considered one of the world's 25 most endangered primates , its situation is far less precarious than it once was. [More]