A genetic analysis has proved that there is only one species of ape in India instead of two separate species of the gibbon – the hoolock gibbon and the eastern hoolock gibbon.
Context
A genetic analysis has proved that there is only one species of ape in India instead of two separate species of the gibbon – the hoolock gibbon and the eastern hoolock gibbon.
About the new finding
- Major finding: The hoolock gibbon (Hoolock hoolock) is the only gibbon found in India.
- Earlier two species were considered to be existed: eastern (Hoolock leuconedys) and western hoolock (Hoolock hoolock) gibbons.
- Study: A study which was led by Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad scientists states that there is no separate species of eastern hoolock gibbon in northeast India.
- These two populations were kept separately in the zoos and not allowed to breed.
- But now they can be allowed to breed as they belong to single species.
- Hoolock gibbon was described first in 1834, in Assam by American naturalist R. Harlan.
- Previously eastern and western hoolocks were considered as sub-species and later classified as species in 2005.
- The study suggests that the Mishmi hills hoolock is not a subspecies of hoolockbut a population that was recently separated from the main H. hoolock population by the Barak river.
- The population of gibbons in Southern Assam, Mizoram and Bangladesh constitutes a “meta-population”.
- Meta-populations are subpopulations within some defined area, in which dispersal from one local population to some other habitat is possible.
- Location in India: Western hoolock gibbon is found all over northeast India, south and east of Brahmaputra river and along with Bangladesh and Myanmar.
- The eastern hoolock gibbon is distributed between Nao-Dehing, Lohit and Dibang rivers in Arunachal Pradesh.
Hoolock gibbons
- The hoolock gibbons are three primate species of genus Hoolock in the gibbon family.
- The species of hoolock are:
- Western hoolock gibbon, Hoolock hoolock
- Eastern hoolock gibbon, Hoolock leuconedys
- Skywalker hoolock gibbon, Hoolock tianxing
- Habitat: They are native to eastern Bangladesh, Northeast India, Myanmar and Southwest China.
- In northeast India, the hoolock is found south of Brahmaputra as well on the North Bank areas and east of the Dibang Rivers.
- Its range also extends into seven states that covers the Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura.
- · Features: gibbons are unique small apes, with 20 species, all of them endemic to south and southeast Asia.
- Gibbons are pair-living, usually with a monogamous mating system, and the adult male and female of a group sing prolonged duets.
- Hoolock gibbon adults exhibit distinct sexual dimorphism in pelage colouration, the males are black overall and the female becomes varying shades of brown and fawn at maturity.
- Both H. hoolock and H. leuconedys infants are born with a pale brown natal coat (infants are nearly white) similar in colouration to that of adult females. Infants of both sexes turn black.
- Ecological significance: Gibbons play an important role in seed dispersal, which contributes to maintaining the health of the forests they call home, and benefit the communities that also use forest resources
- Conservation Status: The western hoolock is listed as Endangered in the IUCN Redlist, while the eastern hoolock is listed as Vulnerable, and both species’ populations have been declining due to habitat destruction of various forms and hunting for meat.
- In India, it is listed on Schedule 1 of the Indian (Wildlife) Protection Act 1972.
- Enhancing protection for the species, the Government of Assam upgraded the status of the Hoollongapar Reserve Forest in the Jorhat District of Assam to a Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in 1997, making this the first Protected Area ever named after a primate species.
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