Good news! A community conservation team saw two baby Cao-vit gibbons, one of the world’s rarest apes, in the remote forests of northern Vietnam in 2024.
What is a gibbon?
Yellow-cheeked gibbons in Cambodia. Images by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay.
Gibbons are a type of ape and a distant cousin of humans. There are 20 species of gibbons living in the tropical forests of Asia, from India to Indonesia. These apes are sometimes called “lesser apes” because they are smaller than great apes (chimps, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans). They are not lesser animals though – they are spectacular!
A gibbon spends most of its life in the treetops. A gibbon uses its long, strong arms to swing through the forest, from branch to branch. This movement is called brachiating. Imagine swinging by your arms like the world is one big set of monkey bars. Such is the life of a gibbon.
Gibbons communicate with loud calls that echo through the forest for a kilometer or more.
All gibbon species live in tropical forests. Some of their habitat is being deforested, and all gibbon species are endangered.
Meet the Cao-vit gibbon
One of the most endangered species of gibbons is the eastern black crested gibbon. This gibbon is also called the Cao-vit gibbon, its local name in Vietnam. Cao-vit gibbons live in northern Vietnam and across the border in southern China.
Fun fact! Recently, female crested gibbons were recorded dancing. Scientists think they may dance to communicate with other gibbons. Watch this video to learn more!
Good news for Cao-vit gibbons
Until the early 2000s, scientists thought Cao-vit gibbons might be extinct. Nobody had reported seeing them since the 1960s. Happily, this changed in 2002 when scientists found a small population of Cao-vit gibbons in a remote forest in Vietnam.
Scientists surveyed forests for Cao-vit gibbons and now think there are about 110 individuals in Vietnam and China. The Cao-vit gibbon is still critically endangered. A disease outbreak, a natural disaster like a fire, deforestation, or hunting could wipe out this small number of gibbons.
In 2024 a community conservation team saw two baby Cao-vit gibbons. They saw the first infant gibbon in February 2024 and the second infant in November.
“It is very rare that we observe baby gibbons,” said Tho Duc Nguyen. He is a project manager at the conservation group Flora and Fauna International. Female gibbons give birth to only one baby every four years or so.
The presence of baby gibbons is good news for the Cao-vit gibbons.
More good news is that the Flora and Fauna International conservation team has not observed any hunting of Cao-vit gibbons since their rediscovery in 2002. Tho Duc Nguyen says that Cao-vit gibbons are protected at the highest level of Vietnamese law.
David Brown adapted this story for Mongabay Kids. It is based on an article by Kristine Sabillo, published on Mongabay News.
