Endangered apes saved from pet trade

07/11/2017

Línea Verde

info@lineaverdemunicipal.com

Conservation International says the birth is a boost for the future of the apes on the Indonesian island of Java.

But illegal trade is still a threat, and is increasingly moving online.

A UK-based investigation this year revealed that the law protecting these ape species was being openly "flouted".

Researchers who carried out the investigation, who are based at Oxford Brookes University, also showed BBC News videos of protected species being advertised by pet traders on social media platforms.

Learning to be wild

The birth of the wild-born Javan gibbon - in a protected forest in West Java - is a breakthrough for a project that has now released 17 of the apes into the area.

Conservation International (CI) and the Javan Gibbon Foundation have rehabilitated the animals, and rangers now patrol the site at Mount Malabar daily, monitoring the animals and checking for any poaching activity.

It has taken almost 10 years to bring the two adults back to the forest.

"It's a long, long process," explained Anton Ario from CI. "Because the poachers that take gibbons for the trade target the babies - because they're cute and easy to sell - when we find them, they're often living in a cage and cannot move around at all. They need to learn to live in the trees."

To ensure their rereleased animals are able to survive, they introduce them to potential mates while they are still in captivity - ultimately releasing pairs or family groups of the animals.

The new birth represents hope for a primate that is rapidly losing its habitat in Java, which has less than 5% of pristine forest left in its steep, tropical mountains.

But while programmes like this can get a few animals back to the wild every year, many more are being bought and sold as pets.

Ape for sale

BBC News. Science & Environment