HAIKOU, August 23. /TASS/. The efforts of the authorities of the southern Chinese province of Hainan to expand the area of rainforests allowed to increase the number of the rarest primates in the world, the Hainan gibbons, to 29 species, Xinhua reported citing local activists.
Currently, four families of these animals live in the Bawanlin Nature Reserve but there is a hope now that they could be joined by another one. "We discovered a lone Hainan gibbon female, and this gives us an opportunity to see the creation of a new family," said Lu Yongquan, deputy director of the reserve.
Due to uncontrolled hunting and large-scale deforestation, the number of Hainan gibbons on the island from the 1950s decreased from 2000 species to 7 in the 1980s. To save them from total extinction, the local government created the Bawanlin Nature Reserve in the area where the last surviving primates of this species were discovered. Following that move, an intensive planting of trees, which are vital for these primates, was initiated in the conservation area. Over the past two decades, about 100,000 trees were planted, which allowed to restore the forests to some extend.
The Hainan gibbons, currently preserved only on this Chinese island, rarely descend to the ground, preferring to live on trees at an altitude of about 10 meters. All these factors significantly complicate their maintenance and population growth in artificial conditions.