The northern buff-cheeked gibbon, a newly discovered primate.

A newly discovered primate? I hadn't realised that such a thing existed until I heard of Nomascus annamensis (the northern buff-cheeked crested gibbon). It is found east of the Mekong River in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

(Here is a mother and her infant, scanning the forest for the next direction to travel.)

I had the chance to observe them for several weeks in the Rattanakiri province of Cambodia however they are also found in the Stung Treng province. These photos were taken at a behavioural ecology university field school in January 2016 at Veun Sai-Siem Pang Conservation Area in North Eastern Cambodia with my not-so-special camera of the time.

The journey to the field site involved a car ride from Ban Lung, a ferry from a small village to the other side of the river, and a motorbike into the forest.

Our days at the field school consisted of waking at 4am and making the 5km trek into the jungle, while waiting for the gibbons to make their first call. At the sounds of their morning calls, we would run into the jungle with the help of Mr Suh and other locals who are used to tracking the gibbons for researchers. Sometimes we would hear them and not see them, but sometimes we were lucky.

As Nomascus annamensis has only recently been discovered, it is not evaluated by the IUCN. It is likely, however, that it is endangered due to deforestation, non-forest product collection, hunting, fire, and other land clearing. Crested gibbons are already quite rare members of the Hylobatidae family.

(This was a lucky moment where we happened across the mother, her infant, and an adult male who were happily eating fruit from a vine.)

I was extremely excited to observe the behaviour of these gibbons. It was such a new experience for me as a first-time primatology student. Their beautiful and almost hallowing calls as they echoed through the jungle, the peaceful manner in which they stared out into the canopy, and the amazing way they could brachiate through the forest was all enchanting.

It wasn't all enchanting though. Too often we would listen to the calls of the gibbons and hear the sounds of several chainsaws in the same part of the forest. On different days while trekking through the jungle, the guides would despair over trees that they had discovered were newly chopped down, or trees that had chunks taken out of them to collect fuel for chainsaws or motorbikes... this awful juxtaposition of sight and sound was enough to make me feel sick to the stomach.

(Here is Mr Suh, who explained to us how illegal loggers were fuel from certain types of trees).

Why was this happening?

We were told that the rangers, who were supposed to be watching the forest, had decided to go on holiday and this had been noticed by loggers from Vietnam who had travelled to this part of the forest to collect timber to sell illegally to China.

These are just a few observations from an Australian university student. This is my first post on Steemit, and at this point I have no idea how it works. But, if this post can reach anyone who has the means to make a difference in any way, or has any additional insights about this, I would be so happy to hear about it.

(An adult male, pausing after a meal).