Need for Conservation of Hoolock Gibbons

Prelims: Current events of national and international importance

Why in News?

Addressing 30^th Congress of the International Primatological Society (IPS) at Antananarivo in Madagascar, Indian representative underscored the urgency of a national-level Project Gibbon, noting its severe habitat loss.

Issue – Cases of local extinction have already been observed in fragmented forest patches of the northeast
Action plan Modelled on - Project Tiger or Project Elephant.
Aim - To promote the western hoolock gibbon as a flagship species to generate broader public and policy support for effective conservation.
Conservation actions – This including the restoration of degraded habitats, creation of ecological corridors.
- Scientific research
- Capacity building for forest staff
- Community engagement.

Hoolock Gibbons

Hoolock Gibbon is India’s only ape species.
It is also known as ‘Hoolocks or White browed Gibbons’ and 2nd largest of the Gibbon species.
It is among the of the world’s 25 most endangered primates from Asia.
Family – Hylobatidae.
Physical attributes – Size 60 to 90 cm weigh 6 to 9 kg.
Diet – Mainly of fruits, insects and leaves.
Behaviour – Live together in monogamous pairs, stake out a territory.
- Calls serve to locate family members and ward off other gibbons from their territory.
Geographical distribution – Extending from Assam to Myanmar, some populations (in each case few hundred animals), also in the eastern Bangladesh and in southwest China.
- In India - Restricted to the southern bank of the Brahmaputra River and east of the Dibang River across 7 northeastern States – Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura.
Diurnal and arboreal (living in tress), brachiating through the trees with their long arms.

Causes for habitat loss – Encroachment,
- Unregulated resource extraction
- Infrastructure development
- Tea plantations, shifting cultivation
- Fragmentation, hunting, and the illegal wildlife trade.
Conservation status
- IUCN – Endangered
- WPA, 1972 - Schedule 1.

Quick facts

Other species

Banka slow loris (Nycticebus bancanus),
Sangihe tarsier (Tarsius sangirensis)
Pig-tailed langur (Simias concolor)
Myanmar snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus strykeri)
Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis).

References

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Naval prowess of Rajendra Chola I

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