Heartening news. Particularly the part about these newly released gibbons being protected (and hopefully tagged) once returned to the wild.

I once admonished a couple of young tourists in Patong for agreeing to their having their photos taken with a baby gibbon, telling them they shoot the mother to get the baby. They were quite upset with me for disturbing their 'photo op'.

Posted by findlay on November 18, 2012 10:13

Fantastic news. I made a special effort to visit the rehabilitation project during my last visit to Phuket. They do a wonderful job and donations will always be welcome.

Posted by Arthur on November 18, 2012 19:06

Great work - keep going - any ideas with the slow loris?

Posted by timinphuket on November 19, 2012 11:45

"Hundreds of kilos of food have to be carried into the wilderness by volunteers, no great hardship when there are a dozen of them, but difficult when numbers drop to just three, as happened recently." Why has the number dropped? Boredom? And why must the gibbons be GIVEN food anyway, sounds more like an open zoo. But with no PAID STAFF.

Posted by findlay on November 19, 2012 15:42

Great work however there will always be some tourists whether uneducated or just selfish that want their photos taken with these and other creatures so a fine unless huge would not be enough to deter poachers and then perhaps they would say they do not have enough money to pay There should be a detailed list with Gibbons part of it that if snyone is found with these animals, even in their car etc there is a mandatory jail sentence.

Posted by Happy Farang on November 19, 2012 15:42

I think the Thai police need to make more of an effort with the illegal trade of gibbons and other endangered primates. The law is not harsh enough for the perpetrators and Thai police often turn a blind eye. Tourist support this disgraceful trade, but I believe getting every single tourist to understand is harder then the police actually enforcing the law and doing the job they are payed to do.

Posted by Anonymous on November 22, 2012 03:39

FINDLAY.. you obviously have not been to project and are completely uneducated on the topic. When a gibbon family is first released they have been with the project for a while and have to slowly learn where in the wild to source the food, hence why staff/volunteers trek to feed them each day. The food is slowly decreased as time goes by and eventually no food is brought to them. They would die of starvation if we dumped them in the wild without a little help.
Staff numbers drop because the Thai staff are payed poorly and it is an exhausting job with long hours. They not only rescue gibbons but other wild life that are often brought in by locals
Also it is not an open zoo. Volunteers and staff only have access to the gibbons to feed and clean. There are a select few that you can see behind a barrier. These gibbons will never be released because they are disabled or are another specie of gibbon from another country, they cannot be relocated back because there are no projects like the Thai project to safely get them back into the wild. The project is amazing considering they are the first of their kind and have had to learn along the way.

Posted by Anonymous on November 22, 2012 04:00