Hylobates lar

Status and Conservation. CITES Appendix I. Classified as Endangered on The IUCN Red Lust. The status of each subspecies of Lar Gibbon is: lar, vestitus, and carpenter are Endangered, entelloides is Vulnerable, and yunnanensis is Data Deficient. The Yunnan Lar Gibbon has been declared extinct in China, but it may still survive in Myanmar. The major threats to Lar Gibbons are loss of habitat and hunting. They are hunted for subsistence and for the pet trade. Hunting pressure varies across the range, but they are hunted even within protected areas. They are traditionally hunted by hill tribes in Thailand, and increased forest fragmentation has increased hunting pressure there. In Sumatra, some local people have a religious taboo against hunting primates, including Lar Gibbons, but in some areas, taboos against hunting gibbons appear to be breaking down. Shifting agriculture and commercial plantations of oil palm are major causes of deforestation. Some protected areas (e. g. Nam Phouy Biodiversity Conservation Area in Laos) are threatened with road construction within their boundaries. This promotes forest clearing and strip development and increases fragmentation and access by hunters. In northern Sumatra, most of the lowland forests have been logged, and the threat of Ladia Galaska, a road network to link the west and east coasts of Aceh Province, means that much of the remaining forest is at risk. In most of its range, the Lar Gibbon is confined to protected areas (e. g. in Thailand, no significant populations survive outside them), but, in most countries, these areas are not well patrolled, even if they are well managed for tourism. Illegal use of forest products and poaching are common in most protected areas. In Thailand, the decrease in forest cover has caused increased hunting. Further survey work is needed to determine current population numbers in protected areas. Current estimates suggest that there are probably 15,000 - 20,000 Lar Gibbons in Thailand with several populations numbering in the thousands, although they are now very rare in the north. The largest Thailand population is in Kaeng Krachan National Park with 3000 - 4000 individuals; the Western Forest Complex may well have 10,000 individuals; there may be more than 1000 individuals in the western part of Khao Yai National Park, as well as in Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary and Nam Nao National Park. A few smaller populations survive in the south (e. g. Khao Sok National Park). In southern Peninsular Thailand and north-western Peninsular Malaysia, a few smaller, fragmented populations survive, perhaps together numbering in the low thousands. There are no recent or reliable estimates of the populations in the Tenasserim section of Myanmar, northern Sumatra, or the southern Peninsular Malaysia. There are also no reliable estimates for Laos, but there may be a few hundred Lar Gibbons in Nam Phouy Biodiversity Conservation Area. The nominate subspecies lar occurs in at least two protected areas: Krau Wildlife Reserve in Malaysia and Thale Ban National Park in Thailand. The Sumatran Lar Gibbon occurs in Gunung Leuser National Park in Indonesia. The Central Lar Gibbon occurs in Maegatha and Kaser Doo wildlife sanctuaries and Tanintharyi National Park in Myanmar; Kaeng Krachan, Khao Yai, and Khao Sok national parks and Thung Yai Naresuan and Huai Kha Khaeng wildlife sanctuaries in Thailand. This is probably the least threatened subspecies because ofits relatively extensive distribution and presence in the largest forest areas now in numerous parks and wildlife sanctuaries. Hunting pressure, however, isstill a problem in most areas, making it vulnerable to ongoing declines. West of the Mekong River in Laos, Carpenter’s Lar Gibbon persists in small forest patches in Nam Phouy Biodiversity Conservation Area, but it is hunted there. In Laos, populations outside Nam Phouy are small, isolated, and hunted, and nationally Carpenter’s Lar Gibbon is critically endangered. It also occurs in Nam Nao National Park and Phu Khieo and Huai Kha Khaeng wildlife sanctuaries in northern Thailand. The Yunnan Lar Gibbon was, until 1992, known to have occurred in just one protected area, Nan’gunhe National Nature Reserve in south-western Yunnan, China. Much of the forest in the Nan’gunhe is now degraded and secondary, inappropriate for Lar Gibbons, or has been converted directly to farmland. Surveys in search of this subspecies were carried out in 2008, and it was concluded that it had been entirely extirpated as a result of continued forest destruction, fragmentation, and deterioration and hunting. It is not known to occur anywhere else, but slim hope remains that there are populations in neighboring Myanmar.

Sumber: Hylobatidae

Descriptive notes. Head-body 41 - 4 cm (males) and 41 - 6 cm (females); weight 4.1 - 7.3 kg (males, n = 43) and 3.9 - 6.1 kg (females, n = 37). These measurements and weights are taken from publications by A. Schultz in 1933 and 1973; weights are from the type series of the “ Carpenter’s Lar Gibbon ” (H. Ll carpenteri) and may include some immature animals. Measurements from southern China “ Yunnan Lar Gibbon ” (H. I. yunnanensis) were provided by S. Ma and colleagues in 1988: mean head-body length of four males and a female 49 - 9 cm (range 44.5 - 57.8 cm) and mean weight 7 - 2 kg (range 5.3 - 8.5 kg). In 1929, C. Kloss provided weights of the “ Sumatran Lar Gibbon ” (H. I. vestitus): males 4.3 - 5.5 kg and a female 5 - 3 kg. The Lar Gibbon has two main color phases — dark (brown to black) and pale (creamy-fawn to reddish-buff) — that have no relation to age or gender, although the exact shading may vary by region. In museum collections, specimens of the Sumatran Lar Gibbon are fairly light brown (like the pale phase of the “ Central Lar Gibbon, ” H. l. entelloides), and it would seem that the Sumatran Lar Gibbon does not show color polymorphism, but this needs to be confirmed in the wild populations. All Lar Gibbons have a naked black face encircled by a ring of whitish fur, with sharply contrasting white fur on uppersides of hands and feet. The crown hair is directed fanwise from the front of the scalp and is not elongated or laterally projected over the ears. Adult males have black tufted fur on the pubic region. Sexes are similar in size. Color is very variable in the Malay Peninsula (from dark brown to buff), but further north, individuals are either very dark (black) or very pale (creamy-fawn) with no intermediates; these extremes are not related to sex, unlike neighboring species of hoolock and crested gibbons.

Sumber: Hylobatidae