KUNMING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists on Tuesday revealed that 15 black-crested gibbons, an endangered species, have been spotted in Nanhua County of the Chuxiong autonomous prefecture of the ethnic Yi group, in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

    It is the furthest north in the world the black gibbon has ever been discovered, according to Dr. Jiang Xuelong, a gibbon expert with the Kunming Institute of Zoology of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

    The black-crested gibbon is among the 15 most endangered wildlife under first-class protection in China.

    Before the latest findings, black gibbons were only found to inhabit less than 1,000 square kilometers of the world, while the species totaled approximately 1,000 individuals.

    There are 39 groups with about 200 black gibbons living at high altitudes in central Yunnan's Chuxiong. Black gibbons mainly live in western and central areas of Yunnan, north Vietnam and northwest Laos. The rare species has become extinct in south and southeast Yunnan.

    Chinese scientists have found that there are usually five gibbons in one family: one husband with one or two wives. But their eating and breeding habits need further investigation.

    Scientists report that the distribution area of black gibbons has shrunk to the southern part of the prefecture over the past six years which makes the new discovery all the more remarkable.

    Human activities in gibbon-inhabited forests, such as pasturing and collecting medicinal herbs and wild fungus, are considered ways to help the poor make a living. But they have forced black gibbons to give up their comfortable alpine habitats and move to live in low-altitude forests, he added.

    Thanks to efforts by the local government to protect the species, the 32,000-ha Chuxiong black gibbon habitat in the central part of Yunnan, the largest of its kind in China, has been included in the country's state-level Ailaoshan Nature Reserve, covering an area of 66,700 ha.

    Local government has called for efforts from villagers living in the area to improve protection of the black gibbon and the species' habitat.

    The province has set up a special fund to attract financial aid from home and abroad and carry out cooperative scientific research programs on black gibbons with domestic and overseas scientists. Enditem