FEMALE GIBBON | BORN: 15 JULY 2011 | ARRIVED GRP IN 2011
Arya (♀) was born at our Rehabilitation site to mother Jonus (♀) and father Santi (♂) on July 15th 2011. As the couple’s firstborn she was the seal to the little family’s new exiting future and her birth placed them next in line to participate in our reintroduction program. Unfortunately, their release was halted when Jonus became fatally ill and Arya, not even 4 months old, had to be taken away to be hand-reared by GRP staff and volunteers.
Despite suddenly becoming orphaned at a very young age, Arya was spared a lot of the trauma that most of our other gibbons have undergone. All the gibbons rescued or re-homed to GRP are originally wild born and would have seen their mothers shot dead in front of them in order for them to be captured for the illegal wildlife trade. Arya has experienced minimal trauma and she has proved to be a strong and independent little gibbon who has no particular fondness for people and is keen to get on in life. From early on she proved advanced for her age and despite her tiny frame and spindly appearance she would bounce and swing and tirelessly practice her natural gibbon skills.
When Arya was around 6 months old she was allowed regular supervised meetings with Emily (♀), 6 months older but far less advanced, and when she was around a year old Arya has was introduced to Emily’s timid older sister Maesa (♀). After some initial rough hair pulling, Arya learnt to play nicely and to respond appropriately to the others’ needs and the three of them became a very tight unit. When Maesa reached sexual maturity she moved out to live in a different enclosure with potential mate Tunda (♀), while Arya remains sharing the large enclosure with Emily.
FEMALE GIBBON | BORN: 2007 | ARRIVED GRP IN 2008
Balloon (♀) was wild born in late 2007 and arrived at the GRP in 2008. She is a dusky leaf monkey, or a dusky langur, a monkey species native to large parts of Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia and a species that also used to occur on Phuket before they were poached to extinction in the 1970’s.
Unlike gibbons, dusky langurs live in large groups with a dominant alpha male and all dependent infants are bright orange in colour, something which is thought to invoke protective instincts in the adults of the group. On arrival at the GRP Balloon was just 4 months old and in the middle of the colour-change from orange to grey. The little langur had been spotted one night at a festival by the Monument in Thalang District on Phuket, where she had been surrounded by noise and bright lights. Balloon‟s owner had used her to attract customers to his balloon stand, but a group of people took pity on the young monkey and bought her for 2,000 Thai Baht. Initially one of them attempted to care for the monkey himself, but after 2 weeks he brought her to the GRP. The Project does not encourage people to buy protected wildlife in this way as the money transaction will only fuel the trade and may make the owner think he is in for a profitable business.
Due to Balloon‟s young age on arrival GRP staff had to care for her day and night for many months. Langurs are leaf-eaters and cannot consume much fruit; their natural diet consists mainly of leaves, something which is incredibly difficult to mirror in captivity. At the GRP we have adapted a specific feeding regime for langurs that takes their sensitive stomach into account.
Since 2011 Balloon is sharing a cage with an adult male rescued langur called Jackie Chan (♂) and later in August 2013, Kluay, a banded langur has joined the cage. The group quickly built strong bonds and they became inseparable, loving to play together and groom each other.
MALE GIBBON | BORN: 1987| ARRIVED GRP IN 1993
Bo (♂), (Rambo) was born in the wild in 1987 but was captured by poachers. When his owner donated him to the GRP in October 1993 his teeth had been filed down, he was very thin and in bad condition. When he was cleared from Quarantine, he was paired with Lek (♀) at the Rehabilitation site and proudly fathered Dao (♀) in 2000 and Arun (♂) in 2002. In 2003, the “Lek family‟ was released into the forest.
Though he was very close to his mate and took an active role in fatherhood, Bo abandoned his family in the forest and returned to our Rehabilitation Site by following people out of the forest on six different occasions! The difficult decision was made to keep him at the rehabilitation site, and no longer release him into the wild. Bo is now content next to Tam (♀), who will also never be released back into the wild due to physical deformities. The other members of Bo‟s family are surviving exceptionally well in his absence.
Bo is now a picky eater and gets a special diet of fruit during morning feed. He is recognizable by his overbite and is often seen grooming Tam from his neighbouring cage. They can both be seen rolling around, taking it in turns to groom one another and it is heart-warming to see Bo helping a gibbon that is truly appreciative of all he does for her.
All his life he has known a cage and people and sadly does not want to be in the forest, where he belongs. Bo was sterilized in 2007; as we do not want young gibbons from parents that cannot be released. As it was his decision, on numerous occasions, to return from the forest he will live out his life with us at the rehabilitation site.
MALE GIBBON | BORN: 2001 | ARRIVED GRP IN 2005
Bobo (♂) was born in the wild in 2001 and was kept as a pet in Phuket Town. At four years old he had grown big and aggressive for his owners to handle, so they brought him to GRP. On arrival Bobo was a spoiled pet who refused to drink water without added sweeteners and he has never really learned to appreciate vegetables and natural gibbon foods.
After spending some time living next to other juveniles, but without successfully integrating with them, attempts were made to pair Bobo with Shirley (♀). This was also unsuccessful possibly due to Bobo‟s young age. In 2006 an attempt to pair him with Endoo (♀) also failed due to Endoo‟s fragile psychological state (Endoo is a self-harmer who started to bite herself and she now lives at our Wildlife Rest Center where she can be monitored more closely). For a while Bobo and another young male, O (♂), were able to have some positive interactions and do some grooming through the mesh between their enclosures.
Sadly, Bobo himself has proved to have some troublesome behaviours, including a tendency towards anorexia. We have not yet managed to socialise him with a female. Bobo is now staying at our Rehabilitation Site where we are able to monitor his eating habits more closely and substitute his diet with extra sweet fruits and supplements. Bobo continues to show signs of anorexia sometimes not eating anything all day; this means he is not strong enough to keep himself, let alone a family, alive in the wild.
Unfortunately, the fact remains, after being separated from his mother at such a young age certain skills remain a mystery to him. Grooming is still a skill that eludes him to this day and his lack of social skills means at present he does not have anyone to help him out with this most important of gibbon tasks. We continue to monitor Bobo very closely and hope to continue building on his slow but steady progress.
SEAGAME: FEMALE GIBBON | BORN: 2006 | ARRIVED GRP IN 2008
Seagame (♀) was born wild in 2006. She arrived at the GRP on the 10th of April 2008 from Prachuap Khiri Khan province where a Swedish man had bought her at the Sing Kon market. After keeping her for one month her owner learned about the GRP and brought Seagame to Phuket to donate her to the project.
For nearly 2 years Seagame lived together with Jane and Beauty in a big play cage. The three of them would play a lot and fully enjoyed each other’s company, but at feeding times Seagame gradually started intimidating the shyer Jane, backed up by her buddy Beauty. In mid-2012 Jane was removed from the group whilst Seagame and Beauty received a new exciting neighbour, young adult Champ (♂). Champ would join the two young females for a few hours each day and we were hoping that a bond would start forming with one of them. Champ appeared to take a more mature interest in Seagame and would approach her for grooming. Unfortunately, once Beauty was moved out from the cage Seagame was clearly intimidated by Champ.
Seagame was soon housed next to George (♂) and while it took a while for the sparks to fly the two soon became inseparable. In 2015 they were released in Khao Phra Thaew forest and at first everything went very well. Sadly George’s body was found on the forest floor, whilst his cause of death is unknown poaching has been ruled out, and Seagame had to be recaptured and returned to the rehabilitation site. We were initially concerned how she would cope with being back in captivity but she has done extremely well and remains a confident and strong gibbon. In 2016 she was paired with Brany in the hope that they would form a breeding pair
BRANY: MALE GIBBON | BORN: 2006 | ARRIVED GRP IN 2014
Brany (♂), estimated to be born in 2001, was rescued from the tourism trade in Bangkok at the age of 6 months old. He was first housed at WARF’s Wild Animal Rescue and Education Project in Ranong, together with 3 other rescued gibbons before coming to the GRP in 2014. Seagame and Brany quickly became inseparable and were often observed grooming each other and singing together. As their bond grew stronger they became quite the mischievous duo, attempting to grab extra pieces of food from volunteers and staff at feeding times. This cheeky pair grew more intimate with each other as time went on and in October 2017 it was discovered that Seagame was pregnant, making the family the perfect candidates for the next release. We wanted to ensure that the baby would live a full and enriching life away from captivity so after weeks of habitat surveying, on February 19th 2017 Brany and Seagame were moved to an acclimation cage built within their selected release site, where they stayed temporarily, allowing them to adjust to the forest. They were then released into the wild were they belong on May 2nd 2017 and have been thriving ever since. Staff and volunteers conduct daily observations in the forest to ensure the health of the gibbons and success of the release and also provide food, which will slowly be reduced over time until the family are self-sufficient. On June 2nd 2017 Seagame was observed high up in the trees with her baby, later named Phuket in recognition of 25 years of the project’s hard work for Phuket forest.
FEMALE GIBBON | BORN: 1998 | ARRIVED GRP IN 1999
Endoo (♀) was born in the wild in 1998. She came to the GRP in 1999 after having been mistreated by her owners. The village neighbours, who had witnessed the abuse, saved up to some money to buy the young gibbon from her owners and bring her to the GRP where she would get a better life and a chance to return to the rainforest again. Here, Endoo was given her name, which means pity or sympathy in Thai.
Initially Endoo did not seem much different from other rescued gibbons and her rehabilitation progress was normal. First she shared a cage with the slightly younger gibbons, but after a few years she was housed with the one year older Mai (♂) in the hope that a pair bond would start to develop between them as they matured. Sadly, as Endoo was approaching the age when gibbons usually reach sexual maturity, her psychological problems became more and more evident. By 2005 she was engaged in severe self-harming behaviours, opening her own arms into the muscles with her newly developed adult canines. Endoo was separated from Mai as there was little hope of a natural pair bond developing between them under these circumstances. Around a year later, when the problem still remained the same and Endoo was suffering from chronic blood loss and risk of infections and blood poisoning, the GRP took the decision to remove her canines. This decision was made in order to save her life, but also meant that she would never be able to participate in our reintroduction program, as a gibbon in the wild needs their canines. Unfortunately gibbons that have been orphaned at a young age and undergone other early life traumas can develop severe psychological disorders like this. Endoo is currently in a stable condition at the Wildlife Rest Centre where she has lived since 2013.
What the future holds for Endoo is uncertain, ideally, we would like to pair with one of our males that cannot be released. However, in doing this we may cause her to regress and this is something the GRP would like to avoid at all costs. Endoo’s psychological issues continue to test the staff at the GRP, but slowly we are appearing to winning a very difficult battle.
EPSON: MALE GIBBON | BORN: 2006 | ARRVIED GRP IN 2008
Epson (♂) was born in 2006 and kept as a pet in Phuket town. He arrived at GRP on the 23rd of February 2008, after allegedly being mistreated by his owners which resulted in him biting their children. A helpful neighbour brought Epson to the project in a printer box, hence the name Epson. His first blood test in 2009 was positive for Hepatitis B, but luckily his body fought off the infection and he is now disease free.
Epson was initially housed with Sylvia (♀), Beauty (♀), Seagame (♀) and Jane (♀) and later moved to a large cage along with Sylvia in the hope that they would form a breeding pair. The pairing proved to be successful and baby Anda (♀) was born on November 12th 2016. The birth of Anda completed the family, giving them the chance to be released. They are now temporarily in an acclimation cage in the forest within their carefully selected territory, adjusting to their new home in the wild and awaiting release in November 2017.
SYLVIA: FEMALE GIBBON | BORN: 2006 | ARRIVED GRP IN 2008
Sylvia (♀) was born in 2006 but we are not sure what exact day or month. We know that she was confiscated from a beach photographer in Patong, who was using her as a tourist attraction. She would have been forced to stay awake for long hours surrounded by loud noise, flashing lights, and being passed from tourist to tourist. Her owner had also filed down all her teeth so she couldn’t hurt him. Upon arriving at the GRP she was initially housed in quarantine with various different gibbons including Epson (♂), Jane (♀), Beauty (♀) and Seagame (♀). She was declared clean of Hepatitis and Herpes and after being introduced to Bobbie (♀), was moved to the rehabilitation site in November 2009. Sylvia and Bobbie shared a cage with Songkran (♂) near the viewing area where they entertained visitors with their antics. When Songkran took a visible interest in Sylvia all three were moved to a bigger cage however unfortunately Sylvia became upset by Songkran’s attention. She was later introduced to Epson (♂) and they were moved to a big cage in the hope that they would form a breeding pair. The pairing proved to be successful and baby Anda (♀) was born on November 12th 2016. The birth of Anda competed the family, giving them the chance to be released. They are now temporarily in an acclimation cage in the forest within their carefully selected territory, adjusting to their new home in the wild and awaiting release in November 2017.
FEMALE GIBBON | BORN: 2002 | ARRIVED GRP IN 2008
Gibby (♀) is a golden-cheeked gibbon, native to Indo-China, who was smuggled from the wild across international borders to be kept as a pet in Bangkok. Her human family did their best to look after her well, but upon approaching maturity Gibby’s loud singing voice started to disturb the neighbours and they felt compelled to give her away. In February 2008, 6-year-old Gibby was given to WARF in Bangkok, and was soon brought to GRP.
After a short quarantine period, Gibby received a clean bill of health, and was quickly moved to our Rehabilitation site where she has lived ever since. As a non-native species in Thailand there is sadly no chance for Gibby to be returned to the wild where she belongs. We hope that one day we will find a suitable cage-mate for her to live with, but so far attempts to house Gibby socially have been unsuccessful and for now she remains single.
Although Gibby’s human family were very caring towards her, living in social isolation from other gibbons has clearly left its mark. To this day Gibby sucks her thumb, a comforting behavior often seen in primate babies that have been removed from their natural mothers at too young an age. She also exhibits other behavioural patterns, and physiological problems, that reflect the trauma and stress she has experienced at the hands of the exotic pet trade.
As a permanent resident, Gibby is housed on the lowest level of the Rehabilitation site where the visiting public can see her. She is one of our loudest gibbons and often initiates the start of the morning chorus. She is a very active gibbon and loves to play around in her enclosure all day. She is particularly fond of her swing, and every day shows off her incredible flexibility and strength swinging and jumping back and forth.
MALE GIBBON | BORN: 2004-2006 | ARRIVED GRP IN 2004
Grape (♂ ) is a dusky langur ,species of monkey native to Thailand, Malaysia and Burma. He was stolen from his family by poachers and sold illegally at a market. Luckily for Grape, he was spotted by a local Phuket family who bought him from the markets to save his life – many local communities eat langurs and dry their livers for medicine.
For many years he was kept as a pet in Phuket town, but in September 2014 he was brought to the GRP afer his owners decided they were not able to keep him anymore. Unfortunately we don’t know how old Grape is, however we estimate that he is around 8-10 years old, as he is already a mature adult.
Upon arrival to GRP Grape immediately underwent a health check, and happily his blood tests came back negative for diseases. He has since been moved near to our other langurs, Jackie Chan, Balloon and Kluay, and we hope that with time he will be successfully integrated into their troop. Although he is in good physical condition,
Grape has sadly lived most of his life in social isolation and may be lacking important langur communication skills. We must therefore be very careful when introducing him to the other langurs that they do not fight or bully Grape; thus far our attempts to integrate him into the other troop have failed.
MALE GIBBON | BORN: 1987 | ARRIVED GROP IN 2001
Guinness (♂) was born wild in 1987 and after his capture he was kept by monks as a pet in a temple for 14 years. Guinness is a Pileated gibbon, a species of gibbon that has recently been listed as Critically Endangered in the wild. Because the species is not native to Phuket there was never any possibility of release to wild here and ever since Guinness’ initial arrival at the GRP in 2001 we have been searching for options for his future. In order for Guinness to lead a fuller life in captivity we were hoping to find him a mate of the same species. After a few years at GRP’s quarantine site a solution appeared to send him to WARF’s Wild Animal Rescue and Education Center in Ranong province where they had single pileated female gibbons in 2003.
Unfortunately the extremely long time Guinness has spent as a pet with humans have seriously affected his social skills with other gibbons. This is only what can be expected from an animal such as the gibbon, which has an 8-10 year long childhood during which time they learn all the appropriate behaviours from their parents. Once adults, gibbons are equipped with sharp canines as deadly weapons and this often means it is too late for a naïve gibbon to be safely introduced to other gibbons. Attempts to socialise Guinness were unsuccessful and in 2008 it was decided that he would live out his years at the GRP and so he was returned here.
Housed in the lower row of cages at our Rehabilitation site next to another pileated gibbon female called Nuan and over time we plan to slowly introduce them. Guinness is probably the gibbon that most enjoys the visiting public. He enjoys showing off his impressive swinging moves and loves when people pay him attention.
FEMALE GIBBON | BORN: 2005 | ARRIVED GRP IN 2007
Honey (♀) was born in 2005 in the wild from where she was captured and sold into the illegal pet trade. In 2007, when Honey was around 2 years old, her owner donated her to the GRP. The project works to rehabilitate and reintroduce white handed gibbons that are native to Phuket, but because Honey is an agile gibbon (Hylobates agilis) she will unfortunately never be able to participate in the reintroduction program and be released here.
During Honey’s initial year at the GRP she lived with Bobbie (♀) and their friendship helped both juveniles gain some social confidence. Bobbie has since moved on to meet other gibbons of her own species, with whom she can build long term relationships in preparation for release into the wild. Honey remains at the front row of the site where only gibbons that are not participating in the reintroduction program are housed. Since 2010 she is housed next to Gibby (♀), another female gibbon of a different species from everyone else at GRP. We wanted to give the two young, lonely females a chance to become friends and possibly live together, but Gibby did not want Honey in her territory and they are now just neighbours.
It appears Honey has thrown down the gauntlet to her neighbour Gibby. Whilst Gibby always used to start the great call among the gibbons at the GRP it now seems to be Honey’s turn to initiate the deafening wall of sound.
However, something never changed and Honey still likes to let you know if you encroach on her territory. This is very encouraging to see as we want to keep all the gibbons in our care as dehumanised as possible. At present Honey remains on her own, whilst this is unfortunate for her it is encouraging to see that the GRP have not had to take in another gibbon that is non-native to the region.
Agile gibbons can live with white handed gibbons, so we are hoping that one day a male that also cannot be released will be able to become Honey‟s lifelong friend.
MALE GIBBON | BORN: 1995 | ARRIVED GRP IN 2009
Jackie Chan (♂) is a dusky langur, a monkey species native to large parts of Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia and a species that also used to occur on Phuket before they were poached to extinction in the 1970’s. Jackie was born in the wild in 1995 and kept as a pet in Thalang on Phuket Island until his arrival at the GRP at around the age of 14 years in 2009. His owners had to move house and were unable to bring the monkey with them and so decided to bring Jackie to the GRP.
Upon passing his medical examinations with clean results we wanted to introduce Jackie Chan to our other dusky langur, the young female Balloon (♀). In order to raise money for a new set of larger langur cages, with a connecting corridor in between them (which would allow for a gradual introduction to each other) a “special appeals” donation box was set up at our Education Center. This soon had the hoped for results and as soon as the langurs were housed in their new quarters they were keen to approach each other for grooming and social contact through the mesh. It was not long before we could open up and let them stay together. Today they are almost inseparable and Balloon clearly adores Jackie Chan; spending hours every day tending to his coat, or just sitting very, very close. In 2012, the GRP received its 3rd langur, this time a banded langur called Kluay (♂). Although they are different species, in 2013 we were able to introduce young Kluay to Jackie Chan and Balloon, and they have been living happily together ever since.
Jackie Chan is normally a very calm and dignified male whom we believe would make a great alpha male for a future langur group. Hopefully we will be able to rescue more langurs in the years ahead and help reintroduce this species to Khao Pra Thaew non-hunting area.
MALE GIBBON | BORN: 2011 | ARRIVED GRP IN 2012
Kluay (♂), which means “banana” in Thai, is a banded langur, a monkey species native to Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia. Banded langur often found together with other langurs species but they use forest resources differently.
Kluay was born in the wild in the end of 2011 and was only a few months old when he was brought to the GRP in February 2012. He was spotted by 2 Thai girls in Krabi province and they paid 2,500 Thai Baht in order to buy him and bring him to our project, the Project however does not encourage people to buy protected wildlife in this way as the money transaction will only fuel the trade and may make the owner think he is in for a profitable business.
On arrival Kluay was very weak and we had difficulty getting him to drink milk. He was receiving around the clock care from staff and volunteers, but remained very needy; his loud cries for food or comfort would be heard echoing through the project. After a few weeks of intensive care Kluay had built up a good appetite and was starting to recover from his ordeal. Langurs have very sensitive stomachs and because their wild diet consists mainly of leaves they are difficult to care for in captivity. Despite his name, Kluay cannot eat bananas as the sugary fruit would give him a bad stomach ache. At the project we have adapted a specific feeding regime for our langurs.
In October 2012, Kluay was moved next to other dusky langurs Jackie Chan (♂) and Balloon (♀), but he wasn’t allowed to join them until August 2013. The group quickly built strong bonds and they became inseparable, loving to play together and groom each other. We hope to create a larger langur group which, in the future, it could be reintroduced into forest area where the species belong.
FEMALE GIBBON | BORN: 2007 | ARRIVED GRP IN 2010
Lumduan (♀) was born wild in 2007 and kept chained to a tree in order to attract tourists into a restaurant. After numerous complaints to the forestry department by tourists and locals, the authorities took the young gibbon away in 2010. Her owners were initially not going to give their gibbon up without a fight in court, but once they realized that owning gibbons is illegal they dropped the case.
Lumduan arrived at the GRP in May 2010 together with Thongkum (♂) who sadly passed away in pneumonia in December 2011. After losing her friend Lumduan was introduced to other similar aged playmates; she spent around a year living together with Pee Mai (♀) before the duo was introduced to Jane (♀), Tunda (♂) and Brittany (♀) as well, with the hope of creating a large social playgroup. Unfortunately, Lumduan was not very confident in the larger group and she naturally withdrew, often sitting by herself on the bottom of the cage when the others were playing and enjoying each other’s company.
Now that Lumduan is sexually mature, she has been introduced to a male gibbon, called KhunSaul, which is a fourth male whom the GRP team has attempted to match Lumduan with.
Over the years, the GRP has learned that releasing a family (a female, male and their baby) is much more successful than rereleasing individual and juvenile gibbons into the wild. It is the GRP’s hope therefore that Lumduan and KhunSaul will become a breeding pair.
Since their introduction, the GRP team has been keeping a close eye on their progress. We monitor their interactions on a daily basis. Let’s hope that KhunSaul has what it takes to impress this picky lady.
MALE GIBBON | BORN: 15 JULY 1997 | ARRIVED GRP IN 1997
Mai (♂) was born at the GRP in 1997 to Pompam (♀) and Bird (♂) and though his story should have been one of release into the wild, his life took many turns and Mai’s story is one of unexpected sadness. Since 2011 Mai is completely blind and will remain at GRP for the rest of his life.
Born a healthy young male Mai stayed with his family for just a few years and was then released into the forest in 2001 together with three other juveniles, in what soon proved to be an unsuccessful reintroduction attempt. Juvenile gibbons cannot survive on their own in the wild and Mai had to be recaptured. Attempts were made to reintroduce him to his parents, but he was rejected by his father. Instead Mai ended up sharing a cage with Endoo (♀) for 3 years, but in the end Endoo‟s psychological problems proved too severe for a normal pair bond to develop between them. In 2006 Mai was successfully paired with another female Shirley (♀) instead and soon, the couple became the proud parents of baby Kernow (♂). In September 2007 tragedy struck when a python attacked the family, killing the baby and leaving Shirley with serious injuries that she never recovered from. After this Mai was paired with mature female Kushta (♀) and went on to have a baby girl Peemai (♀) in 2008. Shortly after this Mai’s eyesight started deteriorating and he was separated from his family.
The cataract spread in both his eyes and, during 2012 funds were raised and Mai was trained to accept eye drops in order for him to travel to Mahidol Veterinary Hospital in Bangkok for eye surgery. Sadly there were other underlying problems with his vision and a cataract removal surgery could never restore his sight. Although permanently blind, Mai moves around his cage with confidence and participates in the daily singing like all the other gibbons.
Despite being able to move around his enclosure easily and with such confidence, at feeding time Mai must take things a little slower. Carefully feeling the shape of the food, he has then working out the best way to get it into his enclosure without losing any. It is great to see how Mai has adapted to his blindness, just one of the tragedies that have plagued his life.
FEMALE GIBBON | BORN: 1994 | ARRIVED GRP IN 2002
Tam(♀) born wild in 1994, she is a permanent resident at GRP due to her physical disabilities. Tam was previously kept as a pet and when her wild instincts caused her to disagree with her human owner he beat her and left the resulting injuries untreated for too long. By the time Tam received help, the only way to save her from dying of blood poisoning from the infected wounds, was to amputate a hand and a foot. Subsequently her new owners tried to house her with other gibbons – an attempt that failed when Tam was attacked and lost 3 fingers on her remaining hand. Shortly after this event Tam was brought to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project, in December 2002.
Despite all this, Tam gets on with her life as everyone else. She is housed in a double set of small cages, instead of a large one as she needs the support from the mesh to manoeuvre around. Constantly using the two fingers on her one hand causes some skin irritations, so volunteers and staff apply baby powder and lotion on a daily basis to avoid infection. Tam does not always cooperate with this procedure, but for her own good, patient cares persevere by grooming her until she allows the treatment. Tam remains one of the definite favourites at our Rehabilitation site.
Tam also has an edge to her and although she loves to spend time with her best friend Bo (♂), she is lacking in social skills and has given him some nasty bites in the past. It would seem only natural that she would easily distrust both people and other gibbons, given her traumatic past. However, she is normally a very cheerful gibbon who fully joins in all the daily activities at our Rehabilitation site and she is one of the loudest singers onsite.
MALE GIBBON | BORN: 2009 | ARRIVED GRP IN 2009
Tunda (♂), who arrived at the GRP at only 6 months age, was born wild in December 2009. His mother would have been shot in order for the poacher to capture the baby and at only around 2 months old Tunda was sold to become a pet. However, his owners must soon have realized how much work it is to care for a totally helpless and dependent baby gibbon of this age that needs milk every few hours and so after just 4 months they brought him to the GRP. They showed up at our education centre unannounced and left the infant gibbon with a volunteer who was working there.
Whilst he was being bottle fed and growing in size and strength, Tunda stayed at our Quarantine site, initially next to Maesa (♀) and then permanently together with Brittany (♀). Tunda was a very insecure young gibbon with a strong tendency to exhibit stereotypic body rocking movements when anxious, a behaviour that is commonly seen in young, orphaned primates. His friendship with Brittany proved to be vital to his recovery and in September 2012 both gibbons were moved into a brand new large play cage at our Rehabilitation Site having received the all clear from their medical tests. Since then the pair have remained together and have shared their cage with a number of other juveniles including PeeMai (♀), Jane (♀), Lumduan (♀) and Crystal (♀).
Upon reaching sexual maturity, Tunda was introduced to female Maesa, at the Rehabilitation Site, in the hope that they would form a breeding pair: over the years, the GRP has learned that releasing a family (a female, male and their baby) is much more successful than rereleasing individuals and juvenile gibbons into the wild. However, in September 2017, Maesa was very sadly killed by a poisonous snake, leaving Tunda alone for now. We have high hopes that in the future he can be paired with another female and be successfully released into the forest.
