Daily US Times: Swinging through the treetops comes naturally for gibbons, the rarest primate on Earth.
But that’s tricky if a landslide has torn a huge gap in the forest, making it difficult to roam far and wide, to find food or meet a date.
For gibbons, there’s now a temporary solution: a rope bridge reconnecting the trees.
And scientists have filmed the ape, a type of gibbon, climbing or swinging across in seconds.
Some swung the rope by their arms, others used the ropes as a handrail and the most daring walked the tightrope.
The endangered species lives only in the forests of China’s Hainan island.
All nine in the group mastered the rope bridge. They save one adult male, which made a mighty jump from one tree to another, sometimes accompanied by athletic teenage companions.
Conservation scientists say the 18-metre-long structure could be an essential lifeline for the gibbons, while the forests are restored to their former glory.
A small number of primates have been seen to use artificial rope bridges, but this is the first time the Hainan Gibbon has learnt the ropes.
Gibbons are the most critically endangered primate on Earth, with only about 30 left in the world.
A conservation programme run by the Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden in Hong Kong is trying to rescue them from extinction.
The rope bridge should help boost numbers as part of various conservation efforts, Dr Bosco Chan says.
He said when we started work at the reserve in 2003, we could only find two groups with a total of 13 individuals were left in the entire world.
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