Help Bring Wildlife Back to Angkor Forest

In the past few months, we have experienced some challenges with our project to Help Bring Wildlife Back to Angkor Forest. Baray and Saranick, the first pileated gibbon pair released, now have only one of their ‘children’ with them, Konteslong. As described in prior reports, first born Ping-peeung and her younger brother, Chung-ruth, have reached adulthood and ‘left home.’

As detailed in our January report, Chung-ruth was transferred in October 2022 from his parent’s territory to the release enclosure at the feeding site for the second released pair’s family. You will remember Tevy’s partner, Bayon, died in March 2021, leaving her with 3 youngsters, all believed to be female. From their interactions while he was still enclosed, Chung-ruth was clearly enamored with first-born daughter, A-ping. In February 2023 we released him to pair with A-ping and captured Tevy and enclosed her instead. A-ping and Chung-ruth get on well, they are clearly bonding and also duet together, a sure sign of a gibbon’s love. There was some friction between the new pair and Tevy’s youngest daughter, Dun-kow who we captured and enclosed with her mother. Although we have placed 2 food baskets in the trees around 100 meters away from Tevy’s enclosure, A-ping and Chung-ruth still return to harass Tevy to such an extent that it is clearly not going to be an option to release her again here. Moving her and Dun-kow away is probably going to be our best option if we are to keep the project running smoothly. Gibbons are territorial apes and facilitating new pairs for wild-born offspring while resolving these kinds of conflicts will be an ongoing issue as the first generation born in the forest comes of age.

Tevy’s second infant, Kandop, seemed to be coping well alongside the new pair; however in mid-May she disappeared, giving us several sleepless nights. Keepers Sarin and Rith searched for her every day and towards the end of June they found her at Preah Kan Temple, several kilometers away. Kandop’s birthday is August 2^nd and at just 5 years she is quite young to be a solo gibbon – but she is still on her own and looks great considering what she has been through. We tied a food basket in a tree and Kandop feeds there, but she is clearly able to look after herself in the forest as sometimes she is not seen for days.

In May, Chung-ruth’s sister Ping-peeung and her captive-born mate, Bakheng, occasionally did not come to feed, and sometimes Bakheng came alone, although he usually follows Ping-peeung, who is more confident in the forest as the first gibbon wild-born to released parents. The pair travel widely around Lake Santamea, and have been seen at a variety of Temples and the construction site behind the Elephant Terrace. Ping-peeung is particularly mobile. We hope she will settle down, but at this stage it is not something to be particularly concerned about.

Pompoy and Borei, the third gibbon pair we released, and their one year old, Mey-Ambaugh, are fine. They are always around for morning and evening feeds and have not had any problems, so far. The young gibbon is precocious for its age and regularly leaves mother, moving independently along the branches.

These days our smooth-coated otters are causing more concern than the gibbons. The founding female, released in 2019, and the two young males, transferred from PTWRC that escaped in 2022, have continued to feed together most days. As detailed in our April 2022 report, they were first seen with 5 new pups in January 2023, although one pup was smaller and quickly disappeared. Towards the end of May, a female otter pup was found dead in a snare not far from the enclosure where they return for feedings. The snare had clearly been set specifically to trap an otter, such was its position, probably by an illegal fisherman, disgruntled that some of his fishing gear was removed by our Government counterpart APSARA, which manages Angkor Archeological Park. Initially we were concerned that it was the mother female, but fortunately this was not the case. Now Sarin and Rith are being extra vigilant to guard against a repeat.

There has been another event that, in retrospect, I feel was bound to happen, but nonetheless it worried us for a short time. One of the adult male otters has been driven out of the group, by his brother, the alpha male. The isolated male is not being allowed to eat, travel or interact with the remaining 5 otters. When not hunting, he lives alone in a hole the otters dug long ago under their enclosure. It is hard to know whether he manages to catch some of the fish we provide, that the others have missed – he is very secretive in his movements. He looks fine. Clearly adversity – or necessity – has brought his natural instincts to the fore. No longer able to rely on our hand-outs, he is fending for himself…and in his own way, perhaps he is also telling me that I should not worry quite so much about the animals we release. They usually know what to do.

Thank you so much for supporting our work to repopulate Angkor’s wildlife. It is a long and experimental path that we continue to navigate. Funding from donors like you means a lot to us, and, like our animals, we usually figure out what to do.