Help Bring Wildlife Back to Angkor Forest

Aping, the pileated gibbon born to Bayon and Tevy, the second gibbon pair we released, born June 30th, is now exactly one year old. How time flies! He is precocious and climbs independently, quite far from mother Tevy. Bayon, typical of most male gibbons, is protective of his family and lets us know when we have outstayed our welcome. 

Baray, Saranick and their baby, Pingpeeung, (Spider) are also well. They continue to feed from the food we provide for them twice each day. After they have fed the youngster has a rag around with father and they chase each other through the branches. Mother Saranick watches on until she too is dragged into the game. We feel that Spider is a female and we are making plans to repair the release enclosure we built before bringing a young, unrelated male from Phnom Tamao to pair with the youngster. This will be experimental to some extent, but there seems little choice as wild gibbons have been extirpated from Angkor and we will need to “matchmake” until we have created a more sustainable population of gibbons that can manage their own matrimonial affairs. 

The third pair of gibbons we brought to Angkor in March are also fine. They get on well enough, but there was friction in the release enclosure at feed time, with female Boeung seemingly frightened of male Banteay. I I suggested we tie a second feed basket to the outside of the cage, giving Boeung the opportunity of feeding separately and the situation appears to have been resolved.