Gibbon Rehabilitation Project (GRP) on Phuket Island
On Phuket Island there is a small group of enthusiastic
volunteers who try to save the gibbons in Thailand. Once they lived
there in large numbers, now they are almost extinct "thanks to" the
tourist industry.
The information on this page is based on the documentation of the project
On Phuket Island, there are still a few pieces of tropical rain forest left. One is near Bang Pae Waterfall,
shown above. It certainly is worth the while to go there and walk to
the waterfall. To get there, coming form anywhere on the island, head
for Thalang, then go to the monument of the Heroines of Phuket and take road 4027 northbound from there. (Or ask your taxi driver to bring you there).
Near the entrance of the area you will find a very small, but enthusiastically lead, project: The Gibbon Rehabilitation Project. Here white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar)
- and other types of gibbons - that have been maltreated as a "tourist
attraction" are being made ready for their return into Nature. Sadly
not even the area near the Project is not safe to let them free. Even
there the danger is too great that they are being caught again, so you
can not enjoy their presence there. They are being released in the
woods near the Project and are kept under control there.
Do not expect a kind of zoo there. The gibbons living there have
to be "de-humanified", so you can see them in their (large) cages, but
only from a distance. Nevertheless you can see them and enjoy their
beautiful singing. In the meantime you can read about the project and
donate money to it, for example by buying articles, or by "adopting"
one or more of the gibbons.
This is the "front desk" of the GRP. You will only see
volunteers there. Most of them are foreign. But do not think that they
get free air tickets or large amounts of money for expenses, because
they get noting but the pleasant company of the gibbons!
You might even overlook the entrance of this small project. It is
more or less hidden in wood. Look for the sign you can see on the right
hand picture above, and walk a few steps up to the desk.
The gibbons you will see in the Project area are white handed gibbons,
the extremely beautiful ones with a white circle of hair around their
face and white hair on the top of their hands and feet. They are most
wanted by illegal catchers, because of their rare beauty. You can see
them on the two pictures above and on the two pictures at the bottom of
this page (all pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them). The ones
at the bottom of the page were scanned and are not really sharp.
Right below this piece of text you can get a better look at
two different types gibbons, pictured in Dusit Zoo in Bangkok. Be
stunned about the extreme beauty and expressiveness of these cousins of
yours!
Gibbons
Gibbons are apes, rather closely related to humans. Their biological name is Hylobates lar.
The most well-known apes are the "great apes" (Gorilla, Orangutan,
Chimpanzee and Bonobo). Like these other apes, gibbons do not have
tails. They mostly hang in trees and their normal way of transportation
is with their arms, from branch to branch, but when they walk, they
walk upright, like humans. This is even more remarkable, because even
the "great apes" most of the times walk on their hands and feet.
They are quite small (around 50 cm. high, we estimate) and in good
zoos you will be able to see them in an environment where they have
enough space. Examples in Thailand areDusit Zoo in Bangkok and the zoo in Korat
(Nakhon Rachasima). At the bottom of this page you can download a
screen saver with pictures of giboons living (apparently happily) in
Korat Zoo.
When they are happy, they "sing" in an extremely beautiful way.
The meaning of the song is to show who is in charge on the territory.
This singing only is worth a trip to a good zoo or to the GRP on Phuket
Island. But you can also hear a gibbon sing by clickling here! Their food consists of fruit, tree leaves, flowers and insects. If left alone, they will reach an age of around 30 years.
Gibbons are monogamous and their natural habitat is South-East
Asia. In Thailand there were many gibbons in the past, but humans have
maltreated them by catching them for their "pleasure" and by
deforestation. Gibbons are almost extinct now in Thailand.
It has been popular (also on Phuket) to catch wild gibbons and put
them in cages. They were (and even are today) forced to smoke
cigarettes, drink whisky and perform other disgusting acts for
tourists.
Whenever you see a gibbon during your visit to Thailand in
such circumstances, PLEASE inform the GRP. You can find their address,
telephone number and further details at the bottom of this page!
When gibbons become around seven years old, they should become
sexually active and they become difficult to handle. This is the stage
when they are being "dumped" or even killed by their (unlawful!)
owners. Or sometimes they are being put in a small cage or chained,
which makes it impossible for them to move as they should in Nature.
You can compare this situation with life in prison, but in this case a much too small prison to survive properly.
The GRP on Phuket tries to save gibbons from this situation. For that reason it deserves your support!
But do not think that this is all the harm that is being done to
gibbons. Far from it. The catching of a gibbon is one of the worst
acts. As you should understand, a gibbon mother will not hand over her
baby voluntarily to humans, so the "normal practice" to catch a young
gibbon is to shoot its mother first. And sometimes other gibbons will
try to save the young baby, so behind one young gibbon caught for "pleasure" you can see the dead ghosts of one to four adult gibbons.
Would your wife hand over your baby to a group of apes
voluntarily? So how would you like your wife (and yourself and other
companions) to be killed by a group of apes, because they would like to
own a small human for their entertainment? This is the way you should
look at the illegal capturing of gibbons.
The Gibbon Rehabilitation Project (GRP)
The people who work in this Project -as said- try to preserve the
gibbons from extinction from their worst enemy, man. They are all
volunteers and they are not being paid at all, not even expenses. They
do this work for the sake of the gibbon. We believe that this work
deserves your support. You can make a donation, apply as a volunteer or
financially adopt one of the gibbons in the Project.
That this work remains necessary is a sad truth: In late 2000 a gibbon in a small cage was found at the famous floating market
and could be brought to the GRP, where it hopefully can be prepared to
return to Nature. Constant attention and support appear to be needed.
We saw a baby gibbon, offered to be photographed with, in Koh Panyee, the "Muslim Village" they take you to when you have visited "James Bond Island". We reported this to the GRP and to the Thai authorities, because the GRP has no authority to confiscate a gibbon. We hope the poor creature has been saved now.
If you see a gibbon in captivity please do the same . You can also call the Forestry Police at number 1362.
Please do not hesitate to do this!
We, from Hasekamp Net, did the last mentioned thing: We adopted two gibbons, Dongrak and Endoo,
shown on the pictures above in November 2000. We extended the adoption
for another year in 2001 and once more in 2002. Since then - sadly - we
did not hear from the GRP on expiration of our adoption, but we renewed
our adoption of Dongrak once more, and made a donation for Endoo, during our visit to Phuket in December 2004.
During that visit to the GRP we heard that the rehabilitation of Dongrak
cannot succeed. He does - even after several years at the GRP - not
socialize with other (female) gibbons and therefore cannot live in the
wild again. He consequently has to spend the rest of his life in
captivity. Dongrak, therefore, is an example of a gibbon that has
been maltreated by humans for so long, that he cannot live like a
gibbon any more.
In 2008 we heard at the GRP that although it had been tried to release Dongrak in the wild, near the center, he died some time after that.The center then found that Endoo could not be released in the wild. So now she has to spend the rest of her life at the GRP.
We decided in 2008
to adopt a different young gibbon, that may have a chance to be
released in the wild in the future. She was confiscated from a
photographer in Patong and her given name is Songkran, because she came in the center on Songkran day in 2004. Her picture is just below this piece of text.
We know that the adoption of a gibbon is only a symbolic deed, but we did something anyway. We appeal to all our visitors to support this Project too. Here are their details, as copied form the printed material, obtained in the Project in December 2004:
Details of the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project
Address: Gibbon Rehabilitation Project, Bang Pae Waterfall, Pa Khlock, Thalang, Phuket 83110, THAILAND.
Tel.: (+66)-(0)76 260 492; Fax: (+66)-(0)76 260 491;
Website of WAR (Wild Animal Rescue Foundation of Thailand):http://www.warthai.org Website of the GRP (Gibbon Rehabilitation Project):http://www.gibbonproject.org
If you really think you should own a gibbon, buy one like this! We bought it at Central Department Store in Bangkok. It was no longer available there in 2004, but at the GRP
you can buy an even larger and more beautiful one for a (donation of)
700 Baht (price: 2008). You will do no harm to Nature if you buy one,
and enjoy its company, like we do!
![Bang Pae Waterfall](JavaScript:openPopWin("gibbon/gibbon02.jpg", 660, 510, "", "cen", "cen"))
![Gibbon in GRP](JavaScript:openPopWin("gibbon/gibbon01.jpg", 820, 620, "", "cen", "cen"))
![Desk at the GRP](JavaScript:openPopWin("gibbon/gibbon07.jpg", 820, 620, "", "cen", "cen"))
![White Handed Gibbon](JavaScript:openPopWin("gibbon/gibbon06.jpg", 820, 620, "", "cen", "cen"))
![Gibbon](JavaScript:openPopWin("gibbon/gibbon06a.jpg", 820, 620, "", "cen", "cen"))
![Dongrak](JavaScript:openPopWin("gibbon/gibbon03.jpg", 660, 510, "", "cen", "cen"))
![Endoo](JavaScript:openPopWin("gibbon/gibbon04.jpg", 660, 510, "", "cen", "cen"))
![Stuffed gibbon](JavaScript:openPopWin("gibbon/gibbon05.jpg", 520, 520, "scrollbars,resizable", "cen", "cen"))
