Gibbons usually stay with their families for years, but for one tiny Gibbon, his world was ripped upside down when his family was reportedly killed.
When government officials in Laos, Thailand opened up a cardboard box and found a small northern white-cheeked gibbon all alone, they knew something was wrong.
Credit: Laos Wildlife Rescue Center
The officials seized the gibbon from traffickers who were trying to sell the little orphan as a pet. They called the wildlife rescuers from the Laos Wildlife Rescue Center and waited for them to travel hundreds and hundreds of miles to rescue him.
Officials couldn’t tell the Dodo officially that his family had been killed, but their experience indicated that many young gibbons in Southeast Asia are plucked from the wild to be sold as pets or to be used as photo props for tourists. It is likely his parents were shot and killed by hunters so that they could kidnap him and try to sell him.
Credit: Laos Wildlife Rescue Center
Rescuers are bottle-feeding the Gibbon they named “Ee Ooo” to help him gain his strength. Soon they will build him a little “gym” where he’ll be able to learn how to climb and swing.
“We hope one day Ee Ooo, and our other gorgeous gibbons, may be returned to the wild,” LWRC wrote in a statement.
We hope they all get returned to the wild too! If you would like to help “Ee Ooo” and his friends, you can make a donation to Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT), which runs the LWRC.
Credit: Laos Wildlife Rescue Center