Closer look: Vietnam’s gibbons

All species of gibbons in Vietnam belong to the genus of crested gibbons Nomascus and are all listed as either Endangered or Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

With six species of gibbon considered to be in Vietnam, this is one of the most gibbon diverse countries in the world and holds more species of crested gibbons than any other country, i.e. all but one species, the Hainan gibbon.

Conservation status review of Vietnam’s gibbons

In 2000, Fauna & Flora International (FFI) published Part One of the Vietnam Primate Conservation Status Review focusing on gibbons. It began by sounding the alarm on the precarious fate of Vietnam’s gibbons many of which were then and inevitably are still (only a decade later) facing extinction.

Since 2009, FFI in close partnership with Conservation International has been taking steps to update this milestone report one decade later in an attempt to assess trends in the populations of each species in Vietnam and the effectiveness of efforts to conserve them.

Within Vietnam, FFI currently has two long-term gibbon conservation projects focused on:

• The western black crested gibbon
• The cao vit gibbon

Downloads

• Vietnam Primate Conservation Status Review (2000): Gibbons [PDF]
• Guidelines for calculating gibbon population density from auditory surveys [PDF English and Vietnamese]
• Spreadsheets for calculating gibbon population densities [zip file containing MS Excel files]

Gibbon survey reports (listed from north to south)

• Muong Nhe Nature Reserve – Northern white-cheeked crested gibbon (2010) [PDF]
• Mu Cang Chai / Muong La – Western black crested gibbon (2010) [PDF]
• Pu Mat National Park – Northern white-cheeked crested gibbon (2011) [PDF]
• Ke Go Nature Reserve and Khe Nhet Proposed Nature Reserve – Southern white-cheeked crested gibbon (2010) [PDF]
• Kon Cha Rang Nature Reserve – Northern buff-cheeked crested gibbon (2010) [PDF]
• Kon Ka Kinh National Park – Northern buff-cheeked crested gibbon (2010) [PDF]
• Ta Dung Nature Reserve – Yellow-cheeked crested gibbon (2010) [PDF]
• Dong Nai Nature Reserve – Yellow-cheeked crested gibbon (2010) [PDF]