Wednesday 15 November 2017

Endangered apes saved from pet trade


By Victoria GillScience reporter, BBC News
7 November 2017

Conservationists are celebrating the arrival of a baby Javan gibbon - the first of this species to be born in the wild to parents that were rescued from the pet trade.

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.


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