Good News for Monkeys and Apes

Black-shanked Douc Langur

Photo: WCS

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There's been a mixed bag of news about the state of the world's other primates (the population of humans, by all accounts, is increasing) in recent weeks.

Overall, the news is not good. About half of all primate species around the world are endangered, due to hunting and habitat loss. But, the Wildlife Conservation Society announced the discovery of a new population of lowland gorilla in the Republic of Congo that nearly doubles the known population of that species, and now the organization has announced a second discovery.

Yellow-cheeked crested gibbon / WCS

Cambodia shelters "surprisingly large" numbers of two species that are threatened - the black-shanked douc langur, a monkey, and the yellow-cheeked crested gibbon, an ape. That makes Cambodia's Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area the region with the largest populations of both species anywhere in the world. That park, in a forest that had once been heavily traversed by loggers and hunters, has been protected by the government since 2002.

"Whether it's protecting gorillas in the Republic of Congo or monkeys and gibbons in Cambodia, conservation can and does work when you have government commitment and scientific knowledge on the ground ," said Dr. John G. Robinson, executive vice president for conservation and science for the Wildlife Conservation Society. "Now we must put into place the management to truly protect these populations and apply the approach to other regions where primates are in trouble."

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