Gibbons deserve better!

Gibbons to move to islands and open enclosures

Gibbons are still widely used in tourism as photo-props and at the same time seem to be still welcome as “pets” with some families. The gibbons in Thailand (we have in total 4 different species in the wild) are therefor under hunting pressure, with some species threatened.

At WFFT we have rescued over 150 gibbons from tourism exploitation, the illegal trade and the pet trade. With so many gibbons coming in we have a serious problem. Gibbons do not live in groups, but in couples. It is almost impossible to get more than two in one enclosure, and once in an enclosure the gibbon can get really stressed if this enclosure is not big enough and has not enough enrichments. For this reason we need a lot of space, large trees and money to build very long and large fencing.

Since 2009 WFFT has purchased several plots of land to build “open enclosures” (see photos on this page) and we have slowly build these large gibbon enclosures. Besides the 8 large and middles sized islands we now also have 4 open enclosures and 21 forest enclosures, all together with a capacity of 78 gibbons.

We have set a target for 2014 to be able to house the other 24 gibbons currently at WFFT in larger enclosures as well, a tough job, but not impossible. We are now looking for funds to build these enclosures. We already have the land, we planted trees and will need to plant more, but most of all we will need to build fencing, for which we currently lack the money.

We are looking for sponsors, private people, businesses or foundations that can help out. If you can help, or know of someone that could please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

See here a small selection of photos of our open field enclosures.