Hainan gibbons welcome new addition to family living on southern China’s tropical island

While they were monitoring Group D of the Hainan gibbon troupe on Jan. 24, one of five groups altogether, staff members from the Bawangling Branch of the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park Administration discovered that there was a new addition to the family after finding a newborn baby gibbon. This new family member now brings the population of the rare primate to 36 in total. The baby gibbon is currently in good condition.

Photo shows a female gibbon and its newborn baby from Group D of the Hainan gibbon troupe. (Photo courtesy of the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park Administration)

At about 8 a.m. on Jan. 24 when they were monitoring Group D of the Hainan gibbon troupe, two members of the Hainan gibbon monitoring team found a female gibbon sitting on a tree with a newborn baby in her arms. Due to the color of the baby gibbon’s fur, they could surmise that it had been born just several days before they arrived on the scene.

In early 2021, two Hainan gibbons were also born, with one of them belonging to Group D of the local Gibbon population. That one was later given the name of “Yuannan.”

Photo shows a female gibbon and its newborn baby from Group D of the Hainan gibbon troupe. (Photo courtesy of the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park Administration)

Yuannan is the offspring of an older female gibbon in Group D of the troupe, while the most recently spotted baby gibbon is the offspring of a younger female gibbon in the same group. Yuannan and this newborn baby gibbon are also half-siblings, with the same father but different mothers, said Qi Xuming from the publicity and science popularization department of the Bawangling Branch of the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park Administration.