Gibbons hanging on in Hainan

HAINAN Island, which I visited a few years ago, is a crowded place, writes Richard Collins

Almost 9m people live in an area the size of Munster.

The tropical waters of the South China Sea teem with exotic fish, but the island’s chief claim to fame is a forest nature reserve which supports one of the world’s rarest mammals, the black-crested gibbon. The outlook for this critically endangered species is grim but a recent find offers a glimmer of hope.