GS TIMES STAFF
According to a latest study based on genetic analysis, Hoolock gibbon (Hoolock hoolock) is the only gibbon (apes in the family Hylobatidae) found in India.
- Hoolock gibbons are small apes and the only ape present in India.
- Earlier northeastern India was said to be home to two separate species of the gibbon : eastern (Hoolock leuconedys) and western hoolock (Hoolock hoolock) gibbons.
- But now a study 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.
- Hoolock gibbon was described first in 1834, in the erstwhile kingdom of Assam by American naturalist R. Harlan.
- The first distribution record of eastern hoolock gibbons in India was published in 2006.
- Western hoolock gibbon is distributed all over northeast India, south and east of Brahmaputra river.
- The eastern hoolock gibbon is distributed between Nao-Dehing, Lohit and Dibang rivers in Arunachal Pradesh.
