The Gibbon rehabilitation project (GRP) was founded by the NGO Asian Wildlife and the Thai Royal Forest Department in 1990. This happend when the last wild gibbon died in the Khao Phra Teaw Forest Reserve on Phuket, Thailand.
The Project
The goal of
the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project is to rehabilitate the White Handed Gibbon
(Hylobates Lar) into the forests where the specie has become extinct. Besides
that the Project considers it as it task to educated the local people and the tourists
on the importance of the rehabilitation of the Gibbon and its habitat: the
rainforest. Seven Thai people work at the project permanently with dozens of
volunteers from countries all over the world that work there through out the
year. These volunteers give there time and money to experience what it is like
to help with the rehabilitation process and the education programme. The rest
of the financing comes manly from donations from tourists. The Netherlands
Committee for IUCN has funded the projects education programme.
At this moment
the gibbon project houses 62 gibbons. Ten of these gibbons are release on two
small release islands in Phang Nga Bay east of Phuket. Most gibbons that end up
at the project have been captured from the wild when they where a baby and sold
as a pet or as a tourist attraction in a bar or on the beach for pictures. For
every gibbon that that you see in captivity about eight other gibbons have
died: mature gibbons canÕt be caught alive so to catch a baby both parents
often have to be shot down. Besides that only one of every three gibbons
survives the journey to the buyer. In Thailand as well as in most other
countries it is illegal to keep treated species like the gibbon. Because of
this rule many gibbon have been brought to the project.
The Rehabilitation Process
Different
steps can be distinguished in the Rehabilitation Process. When a gibbon arrives
at the project it first has to stay sixÕs months in the quarantine to test if
he has got diseases like Hepatitis B or Herpes during his stay with people.
After it is
certain that the gibbons are free from diseases they are taken to bigger cages
in which are place in their natural habitat, the rainforest. Here it is tried
to couple males and females together in a cage with the minimum amount of human
contact. This learning process should lead to some important behavioural
conditions for the gibbon. The Gibbons should have social behaviour like
singing, grooming and playing with other gibbons. It is also important that the
gibbon is not too interested or too aggressive to people. Besides that the
gibbons should move easily and almost never come on the ground. To keep track
of their behaviour the gibbons are observed regularly. As soon as the gibbons
have adjusted to the right social behaviour they are transferred onto
uninhabited small islands where they can really learn again how they should
live in a natural habitat. The gibbons are still fed regularly because the
islands are to small to find enough food on. The last step should be a last
catch with food or anaesthesia and then the final release to a wide tropical
forest where they slowly have to live and reproduce completely by them selves.
The Reality
Sadly the
rehabilitation process is not as easy as written above. With this come many
organisational, ecological, financial and some times even political problems.
One of the
biggest problems of the project is that there is nobody that is really
specialised on the rehabilitation of gibbons. A big organisational problem is
the lack off continuity: the volunteers that come to the project usually stay
at the project for about two months. There is not a good system that always
insures that an existing plan or activities continue when a volunteer leaves.
Because of the
time spend with humans the gibbon, an intelligent animal, is severely
traumatised. In one case a gibbon is very attracted to people in another the
gibbon can be very aggressive. In both cases it is very difficult to give a
gibbon exactly the right treatment so it will slowly recover to natural
behaviour. To have a chance to be transferred to one of the release islands.
For recovery it is tried to simulate better behaviour with bigger cages in a
natural surrounding, contact with congeners, many different kinds of food and a
minimum of contact with people through Long Distant feeding and water systems.
But all this costs a lot of resources and time. Paradoxically time reduces the
change of a successful rehabilitation.
Besides this
the project has about sixteen Hepatitis B gibbons in quarantine and many herpes
gibbons. These apes canÕt be released into the wild because of the danger that
they could infect an exciting population, which could get sick and die.
With this
comes another concern: a rumour that the blood tests results we got from
hospitals in Phuket are not completely reliable. This gives a lot of
uncertainty of course. To get more certainty we tested the blood in two
different hospitals. The clean gibbons would then be released on the islands.
But on the two
islands that the project is allowed to use is no more space for new gibbons. An
even bigger problem is finding a suitable rainforest area for release. The original release area
Khao Phra Teaw Forest Reserve on Phuket is too small and too many people are
living around the forest to be absolutely sure that the gibbons wonÕt come in
contact with people because this seriously disrupts the rehabilitation process.
Because of this problem the gibbons at the islands canÕt go to the final phase
of rehabilitation.
Sadly the
rehabilitation process has almost come to a stop because gibbons can hardly go
from one phase to the next.
Because of this the project can hardly take in any gibbons with as a
consequence that the authorities canÕt act hard against an illegally kept gibbon,
after all they canÕt be taken anywhere.
Due to all
these problems the director and WAR see no change to rehabilitate the gibbons.
Because at this moment there are no real possibilities to find concrete
alternatives, consequently providing a shelter for these poor apes is the only
option.
Conclusion
Despite all
the problems at the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project, important work is done,
because the gibbon and its habitat are treated more every day. To make people
conscious of this a lot of energy of the project is put in educating tourists
and the local Thai people. In a period of four months the project has gone to
five festivals to give out information and raise awareness, information boards
are put on beaches to discourage to get a picture with a gibbon and several
schools have been visited. Besides that information on the project is given out
every day of the week to the tourists and the local Thai people. A big success
was the release of three gibbons one of the release islands.
With more
effort some problems could be solved. More continuity could be achieved with a
strict protocol that ensures that work is handed over smoother between the
volunteers. With this also comes an ambitious but clear and realistic plan for
the future with achievable goals that need besides more money and expertise the
co-operation of the authorities. A
few goals could be the hiring of primatetologist, more uninhabited release
islands and a constant search for a suitable wide location for the final
release of the gibbon. Of great importance are reliable blood test results of
the gibbons by an organisation that is specialised at apes so the project can
get a better idea of the diseases under the current gibbons. On the longer term
there should be a separated gibbon shelter for the sick gibbons. This way space
is created at the project again and the police can carry out the rules on
captive gibbons. Because eventually the trade is these animals should stop and
their habitat should be protected to prevented them from becoming extinct. Even
with a good rehabilitation project this is not possible.