TV survival expert Ray Mears is urging readers to help the Back To The Wild fundraising campaign to save endangered primates.

Celebrity animal experts Dr Charlotte Uhlenbroek, Nigel Marven and Nick Baker are also backing The Aspinall Foundation's bid to raise £10,000 to help send Javan langurs and a Javan gibbon back to their native land and boost the wild population.

Population numbers in Indonesia are decreasing at an alarming rate. Giving his backing to the campaign, Ray Mears, pictured above, said: “The Aspinall Foundation is already working in Java to rescue and rehabilitate primates to help safeguard Java’s primate population.”

Dr Charlotte Uhlenbroek, pictured right, added: “The primate population of Java is under threat from deforestation, hunting and the pet trade. As a primatologist I am supporting the appeal to help send these primates home and help save a species.”

The Aspinall Foundation’s Java Primate Project launched at the end of 2011 and has been eight years in the making. The project aims to rescue and rehabilitate Javan gibbons and other indigenous primates from the illegal pet trade.

Wildlife TV presenter Nick Baker said: ‘There are only a few thousand of these rare primates left in Java and if we don’t act soon they risk extinction.”

Celebrity wildlife adventurer Nigel Marven, added: “The Aspinall Foundation is hoping to send these endangered primates back to the forests of Java - this will be a huge step forward in the conservation of these vulnerable animals, but they need your help.”

At present there are only 50 captive Javan gibbons outside Indonesia, held at 10 zoos around the world. While these zoos are cooperating in a breeding programme, only a few pairs are breeding successfully. Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Parks together hold half of the world’s total captive population – 14 males and 14 females between the two parks. With 28 viable births since 1988, the parks are the most successful breeder of this species and are also home to more than 50 Javan langurs.

To donate £3 to the appeal, text the number on this page.

• Follow the animals' stories at www.aspinallfoundation.org/backtothewild, www.facebook.com/theaspinallfoundation, @AspinallCharity on Twitter and KentAnimalPark on YouTube