When orphaned primates like CHIVERS are rescued from the illegal wildlife trade, they deserve the chance to regain their wild life and boost wild populations. This can only be achieved by providing them with gibbon friends (conspecifics for social support or a surrogate mother), and, importantly, a patch of trees for rehabilitation.

These forested enclosures are fundamental to preparing gibbons for return to the wild. They build the confidence to climb high, the mental ability to brachiate at high speed in the canopy, and the understanding that you must stay close to your family and avoid humans. Humanisation of gibbons is one of the main reasons they fail to meet release criteria. Our twenty years’ experience rehabilitating gibbons on Dao Tien has shown that these vital skills for successful wild release cannot be developed in cages. Trees are needed as early as possible in the rehabilitation journey.