Guardians of the Gibbons: can India save its only ape species from extinction?
by Ragini Nath, Chinmoy Sonowal, Tess McClure Max Ben from Environment | The Guardian on (#6RP7B)
For over a century the villagers of Barekuri, north-east India's biodiversity hotspot, have coexisted with the country's only ape species, the hoolock gibbon. But this harmony stands in fragile ecological balance. Mohit Chutia, a 55-year-old farmer and father, has been taking care of one gibbon family while raising his own. When researcher Ishika Ramakrishna arrives to study human-gibbon interactions, she joins forces with Mohit and the villagers to tackle the gibbons' urgent population decline, endangered by habitat loss, deforestation and industrial catastrophe
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