Tini Kasmawati uses a crude pulley system to raise a bucket of bananas into the canopy of an Indonesian rainforest. Within minutes, a silvery gibbon, a baby clinging to its chest, swings through the trees and grabs a few. For nearly eight years, Tini, 49, has been on a self-funded mission to care for the endangered animals, which are native to the jungles of West Java, spending at least two hours a day with them. A Javan gibbon hangs on a tree in Sukabumi, West Java province, Indonesia, February 23, 2022. REUTERS/Tommy Ardiansyah Also known as the "Javan gibbon" or "owa jawa" locally, populations of the silver-haired primates are declining because of illegal animal trafficking and deforestation. Only about 4,000 remain in the wild, according to Conservation International, and abo...
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Indonesian officials and researchers are working to preserve a small pocket of forest on the heavily populated island of Java as the habitat of the Javan gibbon, which they say is endangered by climate change and human encroachment. Also known as the silvery gibbon, the primate is unique to central and western Java, where it plays a role in regenerating forest vegetation by dispersing seeds. Silvery gibbons (Hylobates moloch), also known as the Javan gibbons, are pictured sitting on a tree in the Petungkriono forest in Pekalongan, Central Java, Indonesia, September 19, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer Local conservation group SwaraOwa is tracking a population of about 400 gibbons living in a 73-kilometre reserve in Petungkriyono Forest in central Java. Researcher Arif Setiawan said as m...
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