Volume 8 Issue 11,
January

Gibbon Updates

Blood Tests: On the 19th January, blood tests were carried out on Nong (a female gibbon) and Jackie Chan (a dusky langur) in our quarantine section.
GRP policy is to check all new gibbons for the major blood-borne diseases affecting captive primates including TB, Herpes Simplex and Hepatitis A and B.
Following the tests was good news for Jackie Chan, who was shown to be clean and disease free.  Unfortunately Nong’s results were positive for Herpes Simplex, which is incurable, as we cannot release any diseased gibbons because of the risk they will spread the infection, we will now have to return her to the forest department. We had borrowed her from the forest department in the hope that she could be paired with one of our single males, forming a family with a chance to be released eventually, so were disappointed and saddened to learn these test results. 

Kushta, Pee Mai, Nat and Muki

Kushta has been through a lot in her life – while at the GRP she has experienced tragedy with the loss of two of her mates and offspring. Two of her babies who were born in captivity became sick and died. In 2006 she was released with her mate Bozo and her third baby, Nat. Unfortunately Bozo went missing just days after the release, resulting in the decision to bring Kushta and Nat back to the rehabilitation site as they could not stay in the forest on their own.

Once Nat was old enough, we separated him from his mother to join fellow play mates BamBam and Songkran, where he lived for several years.  He has recently been returned to a cage adjoining Kushta’s which he shares with Muki. After we separated Nat, Kushta was paired with another male, Mai who had also tragically lost his partner and baby to a Python shortly before they were due to be released.

Kushta and Mai got on well together and in January 2009 Kushta gave birth to a fourth baby in captivity, Pee Mai. Unfortunately, a few months later we noticed something was wrong. Mai was almost completely blind – while it may have been gradual we realized he had lost his sight. In May 2009 we decided to move him to quarantine to observe his condition but this meant the family was separated.

As mentioned above, Nat and his playmate Muki have been living in the large cage adjoining the cage inhabited by Kushta and Pee mai since July 2009. We have been observing their behavior and as they have all been showing a lot of interest in each other, spending time sitting together, grooming and playing through the corridor between the two cages. Over the past month we have been opening the gate between the cages for short periods of time while we have someone present. We believe this is working well and while Pee Mai is still a little scared of older brother Nat, Muki is often seen protecting and caring for Pee Mai. Although this group does not consist of a breeding pair, there is great hope that we can release Kushta, Pee Mai, Nat and Muki as a family unit in the near future.

New arrival
Chompoo, a female dusky langur was approximately 4 years old when brought to the GRP on the 11th of February. She was brought to our office by WARED staff. Some people kept her as a pet at Chomporn province, and understandably they tried to release Chompoo with the local dusky langur group, but they did not accept her. They were fighting and Chompoo has a lot of cuts on her body, another conservation organization in Chomporn tried to help and eventually brought her to our center in Ranong from where she came to the GRP. When she arrived she looked very weak and we had to monitor her carefully. Luckily she didn’t have any problem with eating and her wounds began to heal. Unfortunately we had to amputate part of her tail as it was badly injured. Now there are three dusky langurs living at the GRP, we have a longterm ambition to work toward repopulating the Khao Phra Taew forest with these leaf eating monkeys.

Cage enrichment and cage maintenances:

With the help of a group of ISV students (International Student volunteers), we finished laying the cement floor for Santi and Lamut’s cage – this will enable us to easily clean the cage of this pair which is located far up the slope of our rehabilitation site. This month maintenance and enrichment was also done for Annie and AyeAye’s cage. Maintenance of some of the other cages was also completed – including adding new wiremesh to replace some older ones that were rusting.

Animal Rescue

On the night of the 16th January 2010, “Tone” a 5 or 6 year old, male Pig-tailed Macaque (Macaca nemestrina) was brought to the GRP clinic for observation. This Macaque has been trained by his owner and used to collect coconuts from high up in coconut trees. For unknown reasons Tone had fallen from a tree and hurt his leg in the process.
The owner Jum Noong took Tone to a vet in Phuket Town, where he received an injection to stop him going into shock. The vet, who was not an expert in primates, recommended that the monkey be brought to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project, where Dr. Tum (an expert in treating primates) could examine and try treating him.
He arrived at the GRP clinic at 8.20pm and was administered with medicine that night by Dr. Tum. We kept him in a small size cage, both for observations and in case medicine was required to be administered again.
The macaque stayed in the quarantine area of the GRP on the 17th, 18th, and the morning of the 19th for observation. By the morning of the 19th although his leg was still obviously painful, he had regained the strength to eat normally again, and was able to return to his owner.

On the 17th of January 2010, some of the villagers from the Bang Rong community called the GRP for help rescuing a Pig-tailed Macaque (Macaca nemestrina). The male Macaque named “Dang”, had again been trained to help the villagers to collect coconuts from high up in the coconut palms. Unfortunately for his owners he had bitten through the loop of his rope and escaped on the 15th of January.
After discussing the problem with the macaque’s owner, we came to the conclusion that tranquilizing the escaped monkey would be the best option.  Mon and Yan went to the coconut palms where “Dang” was, he was seen to be very scared as the local dogs kept barking at him when he tried to come down.  Mon and Yan equipped with a blowpipe and a mild tranquilizer, managed to dart the Macaque in the leg. This mild tranquilizer was used just to weaken the Macaque and not make him sleep, which could proved fatal at such a height.
When the Macaque was sedated one of the local villagers climbed the tree to rescue “Dang”, by tying a rope around him. The Macaque was then lowered down back to the safety of his owner. Fortunately the only side effect of this escape was that Dang was hungry after having spent a couple of nights up in the trees.

On the 18th of January 2010, an Elongated Tortoise (Indotestudo elongata) was brought to GRP by a concerned person who had found it in the Kathu district. The rescuer knew that people eat this particular species, and knew that if found would probably end up being cooked. He bought it to us because he knew that we not only rehabilitate gibbons but also sometimes release native species back to the forest.
The Elongated Tortoise is endangered and this is mainly due to the large supply of it in the Asian food market, it is illegal to be used as a food source but unfortunately it is still recorded as the most common tortoise shipped to the Chinese food trade. The other major cause of its endangered category is the destruction of much of its habitat.
Luckily its habitat, which covers such a wide range (India to Borneo), is readily available in Khao Phra Thaeo Non-hunting area. As an omnivore its diet consists mainly of fruits, leafy greens, worms and slugs.  On the 22nd of January 2010, we happily released it into the national forest where it will have a chance to live safely.

On the night of the 26th January 2010 we received a report that a Pig-tailed Macaque (Macaca nemestrina) had been hit by car in Phuket town. We went immediately to see this monkey and brought him back to the project. However he was severely injured – our vet diagnosed a damaged spinal cord and and sadly he died 2 days later from a secondary infection.

Gibbon Families Currently in the Wild

First group .... "Hope Group"

Hope Group (6 gibbons: Joe, Kip, Thong, Hope, Toffee and Omyim)

Story of Hope group
We released the first group of gibbons (Joe; adult male, Kip; adult female and Thong; sub adult male offspring, born at Rehabilitation Site) on the 5th October 2002, and the female, Kip, gave birth to a female baby, who we named "Hope" on the 21st October 2002. On the 26th October 2006, during routine observation, our staff and volunteer discovered that Kip had recently given birth to her third female baby, who we named "Toffee". We estimate Toffee’s date of birth as the 21st of October.
Update

On the 30th of December 2009 our staff were pleased to discover that Kip had given birth again to a male who we have named “Omyim”. This was a great new year present and reason to celebrate! We also attempted to observe this group once this month they all appear to be healthy and doing well in the forest. On 10th of January we found Yoge came to play and spend sometime with Hope.

Second group .... "Arun Group"
Arun Group (5 gibbons: Lek, Bank, Arun, Yoge, and Redy)
Story of Arun group 
The second group (Bo; adult male, Lek; adult female, Dao; juvenile female offspring and Arun; Male offspring, both born at the Rehabilitation Site) was released on the 15th August 2003. Unfortunately, Bo repeatedly returned to the rehabilitation site. After several attempts to reintroduce him back to his family in the forest we decided that he would remain at the rehabilitation site for the foreseeable future. This left Lek alone with the two offspring, but under observation all three seemed to be doing very well in the wild on their own. After some time, the three were joined by two other gibbons that belonged to a subsequent release that had failed (Yoge group), Yoge and Sabai. In the beginning Yoge group was doing well in the forest; the family tended to stay together and move around the forest looking for trees bearing food. Bird, the adult male, showed signs of aggressive behavior. He attacked one of our volunteers and came very close to at least two others.  He was afraid of the Thai staff and tended only to be interested in attacking females. We decided to use a sling shot like with Bo and his behavior seemed to improve. The rest of the family has little to no interest in us aside from feeding time.On the 18th of December 2004 Bird went missing, and although he was seen again on the 21st December, on the 21st February 2005 he disappeared again and has not been seen since. After Bird went missing, the rest of the family seemed to be doing well, until the mother, Pompam also went missing on the 1st of December 2005. We concluded that something bad had happened and much to our dismay our worries were confirmed when we discovered her skull and some other bones and fur in the forest lying next to some gun cartridges on the 17th of March 2006. She had been poached and eaten. We were obviously concerned for the safety of her two offspring, Yoge and Sabai, but allowed them to remain in the forest for the time being under observation. On the 7th February 2006 we released two juvenile males, Khan Ngean and Bank, who had been living at a resort in Khao Lak. Sabai and Yoge were seen playing with these two while they were still in the Acclimatization cage and it was hoped they would stay together. Sadly Khan Ngean became ill soon after the release and had to be bought back to the clinic for treatment, however he died several days later due to intestinal complications. We suspected that Yoge and Bank had joined with the Arun group after staff observed them playing with Dao on the 11th February 2006. We can happily confirm that Bank has formed a breeding pair with Lek and on the 20th November 2007 we discovered that she had given birth to a baby. Unfortunately, though, the baby did not survive, as we discovered four days later that Lek was no longer carrying the infant, and concluded that it had died of three possible causes: either it had been taken by a predator, such as a python or a bird, had been dropped by Lek-which is possible as her previous offspring were born in cages, where they would not be harmed if dropped-or that the baby was simply too weak to survive. On the 17th of February 2006 we were unable to find Sabai. She was finally traced on the 18th March in a different part of the forest. Staff brought her back to the acclimatization cage in Arun territory. However during the night, the females from the Arun group, Lek and Dao fought with Sabai through the cage and left her with serious wounds on her arms and hands. We had to bring Sabai back to the clinic for veterinary treatment. As the other females had rejected her, we made the decision to keep Sabai at our rehabilitation site rather than leave her in the forest alone. Attempts were made, unsuccessfully, to pair Sabai with a mate. Shortly after her return to the Rehabilitation Site, Sabai tragically died of Pneumonia.On the 25th of September 2008, Lek (with Bank the father) gave birth to her second male baby, who we named "Reddy". He is the fourth gibbon born in Khao Phra Theaw Non-hunting Area since we began releasing the gibbons back to this forest (2002). Now he is 1 year old and starting to display some independence from his mother, often venturing out of her arms for short periods but still under her watchful eye.
Update
We attempted to observe this group this month, but have not seen any of the members of this family, although we often hear them singing.

Third group "Payu Group"
Payu Group (4 gibbons: Payu, Dao, Namthip and Mek (or Newbe))

Story of Payu group
This group (Khao; adult male, Nuan; adult female, Payu; juvenile male offspring and Namthip; infant female, both born at the Rehabilitation Site) were first released on the 7th of June 2007 in commemoration of the King Thailand who celebrated his 80th birthday in the same year. However it soon became apparent that the Arun group were clashing over territory with the Payu group, as they fought shortly after we opened the door of the acclimatization cage, which resulted in Nuan dropping her baby, Namthip. This meant that we had to find a new territory for the group, much further away. We rereleased them into the new territory in October 2007, and they appeared to be doing well for a year. On the 29th of October 2008 Khao went missing, and although he was seen once again on the 5th of November, he disappeared again on the 6th of November 2008 and has not been seen since. The other three members remained in the forest and seemed to be doing okay without the Male. On the 15th December 2008, Dao was found in Payu ’s territory playing with Payu and Namthip. Nuan was found not far from the group, she was sitting on the ground and she seemed weak and injured, unable to use her right hand for swinging at all. We concluded that she may have had a fight with Dao, as Dao had taken her place in the group, pairing up with Payu. We decided to catch her and bring her back to the rehabilitation site to treat the injury, and when fully recovered attempt to pair with another male. She is now living with Max and we are expecting her to give birth very soon (January 2010) we hope that this family can be released in the future. Payu, Dao and Namthip joined and formed a new group, still called Payu Group. This group has been doing well and we stopped the Supplemental feeding on the 7th of June 2009. On the 20th December 2009 our staff went to check on Payu group while on a routine feeding trip and found that Dao had just given birth to a baby who we have named Newbe-Mek.
Update
We only had enough time for one observation day this month. The group seem to be doing great without any of our help.

Fourth group "Jita Group"
Jita group (3 gibbons: Jita, Tony, and Claire)

Story of Jita group
Jita Group (Tony; adult male, Jita; adult female and Claire; female infant) was moved into the acclimatization cage on the 29th November 2009.However it seems that this group was eager to be free and did not want to wait for our planned release date. On the 4th of December when our staff went to feed the group they discovered the cage was empty - Tony had bitten through the mesh and the family had escaped! As we were not fully prepared for the release and follow up, we managed to entice Jita and Claire back inside the cage using food. Tony remained free but always stayed in the trees close to his family.
On the 10th December 2009, staff and volunteers trekked up to the release site and while Tony watched we opened the door of the cage. Jita hardly even hesitated before taking Claire and confidently exiting the cage, heading toward the food basket.
Update

Tony is still trying to defend his territory and protect his family – we decided after several incidents that it was too dangerous to spend a full day around the family as we needed to be constantly on guard. For now we continue to feed them each morning and spend some time watching their behaviour.

General

Special visitors to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project (GRP), Phuket
On the morning of the 21st of January we were pleased to welcome a party of interested visitors to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project, GRP and Khao Phra Thaew. This group had travelled to Phuket representing Bhutan’s Department of Forests and Park services, and included its director Karma Dukpa.
Bhutan is a small country but is fortunate to have a lot of remaining forest. This Himalayan country has 3 distinct zones (subtropical, temperate and alpine) and therefore a diverse range of wildlife. Lhendup Tharchen, the coordinator of several of Bhutan’s conservation programmes told us a little about the situation there, one rehabilitation facility for wildlife exists but is there mainly in order to look after injured animals, apparently there is not such a problem with illegal hunting.
We explained to the visitors the aims and methods of the gibbon project and discussed the work we are doing here and why it is necessary. We also spoke about the forest itself, the need to study it and the long term goals of the GRP for involving the community in conservation.

School visit
On 14th January 2010 309 students from Dara Smoth school and on 25th of January 2010 125 students from Kajornkiet Suksa school came to visit the project. We told them about the project and gave them information on the four species of gibbon found in Thailand. We also talked to them about the need to protect the forest and the wild animals living within it. It is important that we give these talks so that we can try to get through to the younger generation. Hopefully they will grow up with a better knowledge of the forest and conservation. We hope their understanding about conservation will help protect the forest and that in the future we will not see so many endangered animals.

Volume 8 Issue 10,

December 2009

Gibbon Updates

George
George had a wound on his left foot, probably from fighting with his cagemate Champ. Although it wasn’t too serious we treated him with an antibiotic to prevent infection. The medicine we used was Sialexin syrup which we mixed into his gibbon ball or inside a piece of fruit for a week. Now his foot has healed and he is back to his normal antics.

Khunsaul
Khunsaul was moved back to his original cage, next to Jonus at our rehabilitation site after spending sometime in quarantine, being treated for a sore on his knee. We think this sore was caused by an allergic reaction to an insect bite.

Jonus and Khunsaul
After observation we have concluded that Jonus and Khunsaul don’t get along well enough to consider introducing them as a pair. They try to fight between the cage rather than grooming or showing interest in each other. For now they remain in adjoining cages but we plan to try a new combination - and find a different female for Khunsaul and a different male for Jonus as soon as we can.

Mary
Mary suffered another seizure in Quarantine. She was found lying on the bottom of her cage, and appeared to be salivating. The seizure lasted for a few minutes, and afterwards she seemed to be fine although not her normal energetic and playful self. The frequency of the seizures seems to be once a month.

New arrival

Nong: (♀ White-handed Gibbon: Hylobates lar) On the 15th December Nong arrived at the GRP. She had previously been kept as a pet in Ranong, before her owners handed her in to the forest department. She is currently living in our quarantine area while awaiting a blood test to check for disease. A problem at the moment is that we have more juvenile male gibbons than females. So we are are cooperating with the forest department and they have agreed to let us borrow Nong in the hope that she can be paired up with one of our males. If she is found to be free of disease and can form a suitable pair then she will have the chance to be released eventually.

Gibbon Families Currently in the Wild

Jita group (3 gibbons: Jita, Tony, and Claire)

We planned to release this group on the 10th December. On November 29th we moved them into the acclimatisation cage, which is a cage suspended in the trees off the ground. The idea of the acclimatization cage is to get them used to their surroundings and encourage them to stay high up, in the canopy of the trees which is where they spend their time in the wild.
However it seems that this group was eager to be free and did not want to wait for our planned release date. On the 4th of December when our staff went to feed the group they discovered the cage was empty – Tony had bitten through the mesh and the family had escaped! As we were not fully prepared for the release and follow up, we managed to entice Jita and Claire back inside the cage using food. Tony remained free but always stayed in the trees close to his family.
On the 10th of December staff and volunteers trekked up to the release site and while Tony watched we opened the door of the cage. Jita hardly even hesitated before taking Claire and confidently exiting the cage, heading toward the food basket.
After a release it is normal for Staff and Volunteers to spend all day every day in the forest following the released gibbons. The released gibbons will continue to be provided with supplementary food until we are sure they are able to find enough food on their own. We also spend time doing observation to check on their behaviour and generally make sure they are healthy and adapting well to life in the forest.
However with this family we had to change our plans as Tony was displaying a lot of aggression towards the observers. On the 14th of December one of the volunteers was bitten on her upper back and then on the 24th of December a staff member was also bitten several times. We decided that while this behaviour was in a way normal – as Tony is trying to defend his territory and protect his family – it was too dangerous to spend a full day around the family as we needed to be constantly on guard. For now we continue to feed them each morning and spend some time watching their behaviour before going to check on the other released gibbon groups.

Payu Group (3 gibbons: Payu, Dao, Namthip)
Dao gave birth to a baby on 20th December. We have named him Newbe. The two staff that were feeding Jita group had continued into Payu group territory to see if they could find any of the gibbons and were privileged to see Newbe being born. As this family always remains high in the trees we are unable to tell yet whether Newbe is male or female.

Arun Group (5 gibbons: Lek, Bank, Arun, Yoge, and Redy)
Arun group was observed on one occasion this month. All gibbons were seen and appear to be doing well. The youngsters spent a lot of time playing and chasing each other through the trees.

Hope Group (5 gibbons: Joe, Kip, Thong, Hope, and Toffee)

This is the first group that we released back on the 5th October 2002. Soon after their release, on the 21st October 2002, Kip gave birth to a female baby who we named "Hope". Then on 26th October 2006 during observation our staff and volunteers discovered that Kip had given birth to her third female baby, who we named "Toffee" We can give an educated estimate of the date of Toffee's birth as around the 21st October 2006. Hope is now 7 years old, and is thriving though her adolescence. Toffee is 3 years old and is displaying increasing independance from her mother but still remains under her watchful eye. Thong the oldest child, is almost 10 years old has now reached sexual maturity, he is spending less time with his family group and is ready to find a mate of his own.This December our staff realised that Kip was again Pregnant and she gave birth just in time for the new year. On the 30th December 2009 our staff discovered that she had given birth to a boy and we decided to name him "Omyim" which means both smile and lollipop in Thai. After the early christmas present of the discovery of Dao's baby Newbe this was like an early New Year present and Staff and volunteers are overjoyed at all the good news from the gibbons in the forest.

General

The ISV (International Student Volunteers) group came to help us this month. They undertook various tasks to help improve the rehabilitation site, including clearing the area and laying the cement for a new water tank at rehabilitation site, building more steps, putting more blocks under the gibbon cages and gibbon observation. ISV volunteers also hiked up into the forest and spent a day doing gibbon observation and helped us with a leaflet drop.

Leaflet Drop
Leaflet Drop
On the 19th December we did a leaflet drop at a different location from the last time. We visited the villages around Khao Phra Taew forest where we release the gibbons, to speak to people and hand out leaflets about the Project. We would like to try to educate them on the benefits of conserving the environment in which they are living, and to help them understand what we are trying to do, and what they can do to help.

School visit
On 8th December 48 student from Pluk Punya school , 14th December 35 student from British international school and on 29th December 200 students from Tesban Muang Phuket school came to visit the project on 10th December. We told them about the project and gave them information on the four species of gibbon found in Thailand. We also talked to them about the need to protect the forest and the wild animals living within it. It is important that we give these talks so that we can try to get through to the younger generation and hopefully they will grow up with a better knowledge of the forest and conservation. We hope their understanding about conservation will help protect the forest and that in the future we will not see so many endangered animals.

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