Meet the sopranos: Rarest primate, Hainan gibbon population threefold since 1970s

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Photo taken on Oct. 25, 2019 shows a Hainan gibbon at the Bawangling nature reserve in south China's Hainan Province.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 -- Known as the world's rarest primates, Hainan gibbons are increasing in number, as there are 33 gibbons living in five families, a threefold rise in population from the 1970s.

This is according to the latest data from the province's forestry department.

Based on a statement, the black-crested apes can only be found in the Bawangling National Nature Reserve on Hainan Island.

They live in rainforest trees over 10 metres tall and rarely set foot on the ground, making captive breeding difficult.

Numbering over 2,000 in the 1950s, the species was pushed to the brink of extinction due to excessive lumbering and burning of forests for hunting.

To save them, the local government established the Bawangling reserve in the 1980s and launched afforestation drives.

Since 2005, Hainan's forestry department has planted more than 300,000 trees to provide food for the gibbons. Forest authorities also teamed up with conservationist groups.

On Aug 29, inspectors from the Hainan tropical rainforest national park administration spotted a female gibbon cuddling its baby in Dongbengling, Baisha Li Autonomous County.

Experts later confirmed that a new family had been formed and their habitats in the reserve were expanding.

-- BERNAMA