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Thailand Holiday: Never Get Your Photograph Taken with a Gibbon.

Gibbons, apes known for their speed and distinctive singing, were wiped out through poaching by 1980s on Thailand’s popular Phuket island. Young gibbons, unfortunately for them, are so darn adorable that we can’t resist them - and this is exactly what some locals in Thailand take advantage of. It is not uncommon to see people carrying around baby gibbons selling the chance to hold them and get your photograph taken. But where do they come from and how do they get there? To be honest, it’s not a pretty story. To get a young gibbon, it must be stolen from the family group in the wild. Most of the time the family members retaliate (and rightly so) which leads to them being shot dead. 

When gibbons reach sexual maturity at six or seven years old, they develop large canines and become aggressive. At this stage they may be dumped or killed. Some owners will give the gibbons to organisations like us or to The National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department when they reach sexual maturity. They will then acquire a new baby gibbon which will be easier to handle and more attractive to tourists. If they do decide to keep the gibbons, they may file down or remove their canines and then place the gibbon in a tiny cage or chain it up.

This is where you can help. Don’t have your photograph taken with a gibbon or use the bars they are kept in and don’t buy baby gibbons anywhere. Report any poaching activity seen or heard to the National Park Headquarters or the Natural Resources and Environment Crime Division (forest@royalthaipolice.go.th). You can report it directly to DNP through their website http://www.dnp.go.th/complain/index.asp If we work together we can try and stop this trade.

(Source: jfirpi)