Hylobatids (gibbons and siamangs) are the smallest of the apes distinguished by their coordinated duets, territorial songs, arm-swinging locomotion, and small family group sizes. Although they are the most speciose of the apes boasting twenty species living in eleven countries, ninety-five percent are critically endangered or endangered according to the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species. Despite this, gibbons are often referred to as being 'forgotten' in the shadow of their great ape cousins because comparably they receive less research, funding and conservation attention. This is only the third book since the 1980s devoted to gibbons, and presents cutting-edge research covering a wide variety of topics including hylobatid ecology, conservation, phylogenetics and taxonomy. Written by gibbon researchers and practitioners from across the world, the book discusses conservation challenges in the Anthropocene and presents practice-based approaches and strategies to save these singing, swinging apes from extinction.

This volume brings together current research and practice on gibbon conservation, ecology, taxonomy and phylogenetics.

Bringing an ethnomusicological perspective to the front lines of environmental conservation, this dissertation is a multispecies ethnography conducted at the Gibbon Conservation Center in Southern California-a facility dedicated to the care of gibbons, severely endangered, arboreal ape species endemic to the threatened rainforests of South and Southeast Asia. Gibbons are known for the complex and coordinated vocalizations they sing each day, understood by primatologists to facilitate bonding amongst monogamously mated pairs and/or define territorial boundaries. Grounded in over a year's ethnographic fieldwork among a small group of conservationists and the approximately forty gibbons for which they care, this dissertation examines the ways in which sound-sometimes as a material force, and sometimes as a metaphor-suffuses the practical, ethical, and political aspects of saving a species from extinction. It traces how the ubiquity of gibbon song, and its importance to the sustenance of gibbon sociality, translates into the work of gibbon caretakers. Not only does the ear figure as a crucial tool in the daily work of monitoring gibbon welfare; more broadly, the acoustic provides both motivational and methodological tools with which to sound an emergent human-gibbon interface. At the same time, the dissertation considers the problems that sonic models pose for gibbon conservation and multispecies relations more broadly. Demonstrating ethnomusicology's ability to participate within larger intellectual conversations regarding the material and theoretical implications of the Anthropocene, this dissertation concludes that gibbon conservation's elision of the otological and the ontological is precisely the fraught medium through which the future of each gibbon species will be realized.

This book takes a new approach to understanding primate conservation research, adding a personal perspective to allow readers to learn what motivates those doing conservation work. When entering the field over a decade ago, many young primatologists were driven by evolutionary questions centered in behavioural ecology. However, given the current environment of cascading extinctions and increasing threats to primates we now need to ensure that primates remain in viable populations in the wild before we can simply engage in research in the context of pure behavioural ecology. This has changed the primary research aims of many primatologists and shifted our focus to conservation priorities, such as understanding the impacts of human activity, habitat conversion or climate change on primates. This book presents personal narratives alongside empirical research results and discussions of strategies used to stem the tide of extinction. It is a must-have for anyone interested in conservation research.

Combining personal stories of motivation with new research this book offers a holistic picture of primate conservation in the Anthropocene.

A ground breaking study of primates that live in flooded habitats around the world.

The Javan gibbon, Hylobates moloch, is an endangered ape species endemic to the island of Java, Indonesia. Java is home to more than 141 million people, whereas there are thought to be only a few thousand gibbons left. The contrast between the gibbons’ specialised ecological adaptations and human population density has framed Javan gibbon conservation as contingent upon protecting the last contiguous forest fragments from human encroachment or forest conversion. Multilateral agreements propose strategies that combine ex situ gibbon management with in situ gibbon protection to meet the perceived needs of gibbon conservation. In situ conservation is broadly associated with historical notions of wild animals, while ex situ conservation broadly connotes captivity and human dependency. This strategy combination is increasing in application, yet few studies qualitatively address the processes and outcomes. This thesis examines how distinctions between in situ and ex situ characteristics influence silvery gibbon conservation processes that integrate both approaches in West Java, Indonesia. I argue that the differentiation in semiotic qualifications of the gibbons affects the material conservation applications. Acknowledging the complexity of West Javan environmental history and socio-political contests over forests and resource access, I applied a political ecology approach to understanding the situated contexts in which silvery gibbon conservation is embedded. Political ecology as a discipline asserts an agenda of understanding how socio-political relationships shape environmental conditions and highlights how power imbalances allow for dominant discursive explanations to overshadow alternative narratives. A political ecology analysis of in situ and ex situ silvery gibbons asks how the two are treated differently, and with what range of outcomes. I applied case study methodology to my interviews, observations, and to document research in order to investigate how integrated in situ and ex situ strategies influence single species conservation processes in a place-based context. Silvery gibbons were selected for the case study as they are characterised as a flagship, charismatic megafauna species representing West Javan primate conservation. Furthermore, The Aspinall Foundation had just implemented a programme to release ex situ gibbons into in situ habitats. Silvery gibbons offered a timely opportunity to explore material and semiotic framings of in situ gibbons as distinguished from ex situ gibbons, in discourse, narratives, and practices, and to record and analyse their outcomes. What I found in the work on silvery gibbon conservation by The Aspinall Foundation, TAF, is that the in situ/ex situ approach corresponds with protected areas management that align with fortress conservation. There are many complex factors shaping conservation in West Java, and protected areas are increasingly isolated fragments of historical forest ecosystems. Yet the conceptual boundary-making required to differentiate between an in situ gibbon and an ex situ gibbon, and continual management required to uphold the distinction, is akin to the nature/culture binaries inherent within fortress conservation. My research shows that privileging in situ as the desired status for a gibbon reinforces notions of wilderness. The discourse of wild nature persists despite the growing recognition of the Anthropocene. Where the nature/culture dualism was challenged, questions of nonhuman agency arose, pointing to limitations of the in situ/ex situ approach and of political ecology approaches to understanding conservation interventions.