New species of ape announced

Calls have been made for the gibbon to be classified as an endangered animal

Chinese scientists announced on Thursday in Kunming, Yunnan province, that less than 200 hoolock gibbons distributed in the province are actually an entirely new species, known as the Gaoligong hoolock gibbon (Hoolock tianxing).

In the past few years, two subspecies of hoolocks have been reclassified as species of their own - Western hoolock gibbons and Eastern hoolock gibbons. The newly announced species was originally considered an isolated population of Eastern hoolock gibbons.