Yellow-cheeked crested gibbon. Image: Peter Williams
Yellow-cheeked crested gibbon. Image: Peter Williams - ANU Experts studying the impact of tourism on wild gibbon populations are recommending visitors don PPE masks and have health and temperature checks before entering forests where wild populations live. While tourism to wild gibbon populations halted with the first COVID-19 lockdowns, tour operators in Cambodia and China are gearing up to resume visits. The recommendations build on world-first research on wild gibbon populations in Cambodia and China, which shows the apes significantly alter their behaviour, to their own detriment when tourists are present. Instead of resting and socialising, gibbons spent more time on the look-out for danger and displayed stress and anxiety behaviours when tourist groups followed them. ANU researcher Jessica Williams said her studies showed gibbons were trading off their rest time to monitor an unfamiliar situation. "Scanning the landscape is one way animals monitor their environment and detect danger.
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