Mondulkiri home to rare gibbon clan

Mondulkiri home to rare gibbon clan
Written by Christopher Shay
Wednesday, 31 December 2008

New survey shows population to be world's second-largest

Recent surveys by the global conservation group WWF in the Phnom Prich
Wildlife Sanctuary in Mondulkiri have revealed the second-largest
population of yellow-cheeked crested gibbons in the world, according
to Thomas Gray, a biodiversity monitoring adviser for WWF.

The surveys estimate more than 1,000 endangered gibbons in 275 groups
reside in the wildlife sanctuary, according to a WWF press release.

For three months, the WWF has led an Eastern Plains Landscape Project
to determine the extent of the gibbon population, but were caught off
guard by the large numbers.

"It was a little surprising. The habitat is not as good in Phnom Prich
as it is further south in the Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area,"
Gray said.

The project findings emphasise that the dry evergreen forests of
Mondulkiri are relatively intact and home to a diverse mammal
community that includes bantengs, jungle cats, tigers and one of the
largest populations of wild elephants in Cambodia, Gray said.

The yellow-cheeked crested gibbon is classified by the International
Union for the Conservation of Nature as endangered - one of 16
endangered mammals in the Kingdom.

"The yellow-cheeked crested gibbons are beautiful animals," Gray said.
"They call every morning. It is a very characteristic sound in the
forest."

Asnarith Tep, a senior communications officer at WWF, said the gibbons
are "an integral part of the Eastern Plains Landscape biodiversity.

"The forests of Mondulkiri represent the last stronghold for the
species. If gibbons are lost from the landscape, a key part of the
characteristic fauna is gone," Asnarith Tep said.
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