At the recently held Second East Himalaya Forum, the Sixth Asian Primate Conference and the Fifth Indochina Peninsula Primate Conservation Seminar, the research team of the East Himalaya Research Institute of Dali University announced that infrared images of gibbons were captured in the southern section of Biluo Snow Mountain in Yunlong County, Yunnan Province, and the critically endangered species, the western black-crested gibbon, were identified based on the photos. This is the first time that a western black-crested gibbon has been photographed in my country using an infrared camera.
The investigation team of the East Himalaya Research Institute of Dali University began to deploy infrared cameras and conduct field investigations. When recovering infrared photos in October this year, they found images of gibbons. Based on the geographical distribution of the species and the morphological characteristics of the crested hair, the team identified the gibbon as the western Yunnan species of the western black-crested gibbon. The discovery site is located at the junction of Yunlong County, Dali Prefecture, and Lushui County, Nujiang Prefecture. The potential distribution area determined by the visual access survey method is mostly located in the Dali Caojian Forest Farm.
The northernmost area of the distribution of the western black-crested gibbon in the past was Ailao Mountain. The current investigation has moved its distribution area nearly 100 kilometers north. The Yunnan sub-species of the western black-crested gibbon used to be mainly distributed in Lincang City. This discovery has moved its distribution area northward by about 150 kilometers. The newly discovered group is the northernmost distribution of the western black-crested gibbon at present.
The discovery of the western black-crested gibbon also fully demonstrates the achievements made by Yunlong County in forest resource protection and biodiversity protection.
Gibbons have relatively high requirements for forest environment and can usually only survive in well-preserved original evergreen broad-leaved forests. The six species of gibbons in my country are rare, among which the western black-crested gibbon is listed as a critically endangered species by the World Conservation Union. The population is only more than 1,000, and it is listed as a national first-class key protected wild animal in my country. Fang Yihao, an assistant researcher at the East Himalaya Research Institute of Dali University, said: The western black-crested gibbon mainly lives in the forest canopy and does not move on the ground. It is difficult to detect this species with conventional ground infrared camera monitoring, and the infrared camera that the East Himalaya Research Institute photographed the gibbon happened to be installed in the forest canopy.
The East Himalaya Research Institute of Dali University was established in 2007. It is based in the East Himalayas, focuses on the Three Parallel Rivers area in northwestern Yunnan, takes primates as the starting point, insists on systematic and long-term field monitoring, and conducts conservation research from the perspective of complex ecosystems.
