Our Supporters:
At the end of their honeymoon in Thailand TOM GALE and his bride, Basma, found themselves temporarily stranded as a result of the occupation of Bankok`s two main airports. Faced with an enforced extension of their holiday they put the time to good advantage.
On the island of Phuket Tom and Basma discovered a small, under funded and unsung conservation project.
Now, safely back at their Preston, Nr. Wingham home they are determined to help to further the work of the volunteers.
Tom writes:
“On the popular holiday island of Phuket and in other parts of Thailand Gibbon Monkeys are illegally kept as pets and as tourist attractions. The only way to acquire a young Gibbon is to take it from the wild by first shooting its mother and father. The capture of one young monkey can involve the deaths of three entire families. mother Gibbons often nurse their offspring for up to seven years. When a mother is shot and her young fall from the tree with her many die. It is estimated that only one in three of the young monkeys even survives the fall. Most of these babies are then used on the beach where unsuspecting visitors pay to have photographs with the captive animals.
No matter what the photographers may tell their clients what they are doing is strictly illegal and as a result of the poaching much of Thailand`s diminishing lowland rainforest is now under-populated with Gibbons.
The Gibbon Rehabilitation Project, known locally just as "The GRP" has been trying, for nearly seventeen years, to help reverse the process of theft and destruction. Founded in 1992 by the Chief of the Royal Forest Department, Khun Noppadol Preuksawan, with additional support from Terrence Dillon Morin, the GRP is hidden away in a corner of the Icheo Theaw Non-Hunting Area, a national park.
The GRP receives some support from the Asian Wildlife Fund and the Wild Animal Foundation of Thailand but is staffed mainly by volunteers and is funded by public subscriptions from visitors. The volunteers, in addition to giving a few months of their time, also make a financial contribution to its work and upkeep.
The Project is a Thai-run organisation and the only group of its kind carrying out its specialised work. It`s goal is quite simply to save the Gibbons and their rainforest habitat from hunting and possible eradication. When we visited it the sanctuary was hosting several dozen Gibbon monkeys and we were told that the demand for the rehabilitation is growing.
The GRP works with animals that have been confiscated by the police or handed in by their "owners" when they grow too large to become of interest or use. These animals live for forty years and the older males, particularly, can become aggressive and dangerous. After rehabilitation they are, whenever possible, reintroduced to the canopy of the lowland rainforests from which they have been stolen but, sadly, until they can be released into the wild they have to be kept in cages.
Every gibbon arriving at the Rehabilitation Project receives a medical check that includes blood tests for various diseases and then it goes into quarantine. The rehabilitation process involves going through a series of environments which encourage a return to natural behaviour and food and offers maximum contact with other monkeys and minimum contact with humans.
The monkeys are socialised as families and encouraged to breed. It can be several painstaking years before a group that is considered suitable and able to survive by themselves is released and then the problems may only just be beginning. Even though Nat and his mother and father were set free in the national park hunting-free are Nat’s father was shot by hunters seeking food and he and his mother are now back in the sanctuary and unlikely to be released again. Like others unable to live in the wild they are housed on small artificial islands on which they can live free from cages but without harm to themselves or others.
All of this work costs money to provide the necessary holding cages, food, veterinary care and scientific equipment. Basma and I think that this is a very worthwhile and well-run conservation project and having been treated so well by the Thai people when we needed help ourselves we want to try to give a little back by raising funds to support the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project.”
If you would like to contribute please either pay money directly into the Wild Animal Rescue Foundation account, No. 573-0.158143, Thalang Branch, Bankok Bank or send a cheque made out to the Kent-based Animals Worldwide charity , 215a Canterbury Road, Birchington CT7 9AH. AW will transfer all of the money donated to the project. Please mark the envelope clearly Gibbon RP.