Study aims to boost Hainan gibbon numbers

Habitat, nutrition, genetics and extreme events can threaten species' recovery

In the heart of the lush Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park dwells the Hainan black-crested gibbon (Nomascus hainanus). Also known as the Hainan gibbon, it is the world's rarest primate species.

Only 42 individuals remain, a single struggling population clinging to existence within the park's Bawangling area. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies them as critically endangered.

For decades, conservationists have strived to bolster their numbers, battling habitat loss and low genetic diversity. A team led by professor Fan Pengfei from the School of Life Sciences at Sun Yatsen University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in collaboration with researchers from home and abroad, recently published a paper in Science Advances, an open access multidisciplinary journal.