Theresia Sufa, Bogor, West Java – Two owa jawa (Javan gibbon) families were relocated on Monday to the Malabar Mountain Protected Forest area in Bandung, West Java, following rehabilitation at the Java Gibbon Center (JGC) in Bogor, also in the province.
Sapto Aji Prabowo, head of the Mount Gede Pangrango National Park, said the two families consisted of five individuals, a male and female couple and their female cub, and another male-female couple.
The endangered animals will undergo a habituation period in the Puntang Mount area of the protected forest.
"Hopefully they can do well in the process before we are able to release them to their natural habitat in August," Sapto said.
The Javan gibbon (Hylobates moloch), is classified as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species and is at high risk of extinction due to the illegal pet trade, hunting, habitat loss and forest fragmentation. It is estimated that less than 2,500 silvery gibbons remain in the wild. (dre)