Phnom Penh - A survey by environmental agency Wildlife
Conservation Society (WCS) has uncovered 'surprisingly large'
populations of two globally endangered primates in a remote protected
area in Cambodia, it said in a press release Friday.
A census by WCS scientists and Cambodian rangers across a 780-
square-kilometre area in the remote north-eastern border province of
Mondulkiri on the Vietnam border counted 42,000 black-shanked doucs
and 2,500 yellow-cheeked crested gibbons, it said.
'The estimate represents the world's largest known populations for
both species,' WCS said in a press release, adding that total
populations of the two threatened species within the surrounding
3,000sq km area may be even larger.
'Prior to this discovery, the largest known populations of the two
primate species were believed to live in adjacent Vietnam, where
black-shanked doucs and yellow-cheeked crested gibbons number at 600
and 200 respectively. Their total population figures remain unknown.'
Doucs, a species of Old World monkey, take their name from the
Vietnamese word for monkey and the strikingly marked black-shanked
doucs are found only in this patch of Cambodia and Vietnam.
WCS gave the Cambodian government rare praise, saying its
commitment to prevent logging in the area had been strong and had
helped greatly, but warned that other threats still remained.
'The primates have benefited from a cessation of logging
activities, a nation-wide gun confiscation program implemented in the
1990s, and a habitat where there is plenty to eat,' WCS said.
'But ... the area still remains at risk from conversion to
agro-industrial plantations for crops, including biofuels, and
commercial mining.'
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