综合一区欧美国产,99国产麻豆免费精品,九九精品黄色录像,亚洲激情青青草,久久亚洲熟妇熟,中文字幕av在线播放,国产一区二区卡,九九久久国产精品,久久精品视频免费

Guardians of the Gaoligong Mountains

Rangers shield endangered primates with diligence, scientific tools

By Li Lei and Li Yingqing in Baoshan | China Daily | Updated: 2026-02-24 09:12
Share
Share - WeChat
Rangers patrol the reserve in December 2020. JIANG WENYAO/XINHUA

From rumor to science

Last year marked the 20th anniversary of the first photograph of what would eventually be recognized as the Skywalker hoolock gibbon — a creature long mistaken for its cousins across Myanmar, India and Bangladesh.

The journey from misclassification to discovery began in 2007, when researchers led by Fan Pengfei of Sun Yat-sen University started questioning the identity of China's gibbons. Photographs revealed subtle but consistent differences: males lacked the white beards and eye-patch markings of known species, while females showed less prominent white facial rings.

For the next decade, an international team pieced together evidence — examining 122 specimens in museums across China, the United States and Europe, analyzing teeth morphology, and sequencing DNA. They found China's gibbon population had diverged from the eastern hoolock gibbon around half a million years ago, a time frame comparable to other recognized primate species.

On Jan 11, 2017, the team formally described Hoolock tianxing in the American Journal of Primatology. The name combined "tianxing", an ancient Chinese term meaning "heavenly movement", with a nod to Star Wars — reflecting Fan's admiration for the franchise's Luke Skywalker.

When Li Jiahua arrived as the inaugural chief of the reserve's Nankang Management Station in late 1997 — where Yang now works — the gibbons were barely more than a rumor: occasional calls in the mist, fleeting glimpses before they vanished. Today, as deputy head of the reserve's Longyang bureau, he oversees a transformation from casual observation to precision science.

The breakthrough came on May 16, 2005, when Li's cousin and successor, Li Jiahong, captured the first clear photograph using an old film camera. That single image opened the door for researchers from multiple universities to study the mysterious apes.

|<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next   >>|
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1994 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
饶河县| 吉隆县| 沧源| 孙吴县| 长顺县| 深州市| 长武县| 共和县| 封开县| 澜沧| 长顺县| 大庆市| 保亭| 信宜市| 固始县| 民乐县| 桐庐县| 东源县| 株洲市| 丘北县| 萍乡市| 临泉县| 密山市| 城口县| 象州县| 晋宁县| 喜德县| 本溪| 桃源县| 岳阳市| 宝山区| 鄱阳县| 永城市| 周口市| 莱芜市| 阿拉善右旗| 都江堰市| 上蔡县| 兴化市| 南投县| 收藏|