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Book Publications

Cover "The conservation status of hoolock gibbons in Myanmar

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The conservation status of hoolock gibbons in Myanmar

2013
by Thomas Geissmann, Mark E. Grindley, Ngwe Lwin, Saw Soe Aung, Thet Naing Aung, Saw Blaw Htoo, and Frank Momberg (Authors)

Electronic Edition: xii + 157 pages
Publisher: Gibbon Conservation Alliance, Zurich, Switzerland
Language: English
ISBN: 978-3-033-04358-9

From the Back Cover:
   Hoolock gibbons are small apes of South-east Asia, and Myanmar is believed to be their last stronghold. In Bangladesh, India, and China, most forests supporting the hoolock gibbons are small and highly fragmented. Myanmar, in contrast, is thought to have huge areas of hoolock gibbon habitat in good quality and to hold significant populations of both the western and the eastern hoolock gibbon. This report takes the first detailed look at the status of each Myanmar’s hoolock species.
   Until now, conservation actions for the hoolock gibbons in Myanmar were constrained by a lack of data on their distribution, population size and threats. We addressed this need by conducting a nationwide review of the status of the species based on: (1) a review of the taxonomic and ecological knowledge on both hoolock species throughout their range, (2) a compilation of a full annotated list of hoolock records, published and unpublished, for Myanmar, and (3) population estimates and threats assessments for both species throughout Myanmar based on various field surveys conducted by the authors for this project.
   The resulting report gives a first picture of the conservation status of Myanmar’s hoolock gibbons in a regional, national and international context.

Cover "Gibbons – The singing apes / Gibbons - Die singenden Menschenaffen"

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Gibbons – The singing apes
Gibbons – Die singenden Menschenaffen

2014
by Thomas Geissmann (Author)

Softcover Edition: 48 pages
Publisher: Anthropologisches Institut und Museum Universität Zürich, and Gibbon Conservation Alliance, Zurich, Switzerland
Language: English and German
ISBN: 978-3-033-04475-3

Accompanying booklet to an exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology, University of Zurich, Switzerland.

From the Introduction:
   Gibbons are apes. They are more closely related to humans than to macaques, baboons or langurs. Yet, these small apes are far less known and researched than their larger relatives (chimpanzees, gorillas or orangutans).
   Gibbons are unique among the apes in many respects, for example in their social life, locomotion, anatomy or their way of communication.
   Gibbons live in small family groups consisting of one to six animals. This type of social structure can only be found in approximately 3% of all mammals. Gibbons live in the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia. With their lightweight physique they are adapted to life in the treetops and with their long arms they move acrobatically in brachiation, a unique way of locomotion that is repeatedly being compared to bird flight. Whether on the ground or on thick branches, gibbons do not walk on all fours like most monkeys and apes; they walk upright like humans.
   The territorial morning songs of the gibbons are among the most spectacular calls of all mammals. They are often performed as carefully matched duet songs by mated gibbon pairs. Gibbon songs are considered to be the best model for the evolution of human music.
   Gibbons are the first apes to which humans developed a close relationship. For more than 2000 years, gibbons have been of particular importance in Chinese culture, where they represent the fabled link between humans and nature and where they are a symbol of eternal life, among other things. They have been the object of worship in numerous paintings and poems.
   Today many gibbons are extremely threatened to the point of extinction. Among them we find the rarest apes and, furthermore, even the rarest species of primates. The biggest threats are habitat loss and degradation, hunting and illegal trade. Conserving the gibbons must become a top priority.




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