WILDLIFE REHABILITATION, MALAYSIA

Gibbon Sanctuary Malaysia

This gibbon sanctuary in Malaysia is part of Kindred Guardians’ work documenting the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of some of the region’s most endangered apes.

Bam raises the orphaned gibbons in her home because she says “Infant gibbons need to feel the support and security of a close relationship in order to gain confidence as they grow up.”

Bam is currently using her own house for the infants because they need constant care and GPSM doesn’t have the proper facilities yet. She says “infants need a warm environment at night and need to be given milk every 4 hours. “

Silhouette of a person climbing a chain-link fence against a bright sky, framed by tree branches above.

Bam hand feeds an infant gibbon milk from a bottle at her home.

Bam awaits her hearing at the courthouse in Kuala Lumpur for her request for permits to set up a Gibbon rehabilitation center, the first if it’s kind in Malaysia.

Tom, a 2 year-old gibbon rests in a hammock at the jungle school created by Bam and her team of volunteers.

When Tom was an infant his mother was killed by car and she herself was also severely injured. Bam is teaching Tom how to live again in the wild.

Bam is working tirelessly with the government of Malaysia to try to gain permission to build the first ever gibbon rehabilitation center in Malaysia.

The GPSM operates off of Bam’s own money and private donations. If you’d like to contribute please visit https://www.facebook.com/gibbonprotectionsociety/

Bam takes a nap after long day working with the gibbons. The infants stay with her for a short period of time as she slowly teaches them them to be away from human contact and to live in nature.

Tom receives a belly rub as she rests after swinging from the trees in the jungle all morning.

Bam and her team must work closely with the infant gibbons and then slowly wean them off of human contact to prepare them to live in nature again.

Nrhafizah Sanan, 18, volunteers with the GPSM as a gibbon caretaker.

Bam carries a stuffed animal gibbon used to discourage the adult gibbons from crossing over the bridge.

When asked about the most rewarding part of her work Bam says “seeing the gibbons climb high up in the trees and hearing them sing. “

All gibbons produce elaborate and beautiful songs in the wild, but the illegal trade of wild gibbons as pets in Malaysia creates silent forests, bereft of these charismatic animals.

Tom plays with a mirror near her newly constructed home in the jungle.

Bam and her team teach the young gibbons how to find food hidden in bamboo stalks.

Gibbons are arboreal, meaning they spend most of their time up in the tree tops and rarely come down to the ground.

Bam’s friends and fellow volunteers for GPSM console her after a hearing from the courts in Kuala Lumpur where the judge delayed his ruling on her permit request to house the gibbons.

Her greater hope is to get the laws amended, such that the information posted by traders or owners of gibbons on social media would be enough to effect an arrest.

During the rehabilitation process Bam and her team hand feed milt to the infants every 4 hours.

Bam worked as a wildlife ranger for 11 years and has worked with gibbons for 6 years. She is currently the only person doing gibbon rehabilitation in Malaysia.

Gibbons not only include the most endangered apes but also the most endangered primate species of the world.

Bam started her career as a government ranger and after participating in a study program at the Copenhagen Zoo she started to gain interest in conservation.

Bam makes her way to her van to drive the gibbons to a full day of jungle school where they will learn how to feed in the wild and swing and climb trees.

Bam is disappointed in the culture in Malaysia of influencers and celebrities posting pictures on their social media accounts of their pet gibbons.

She says they aren’t meant to be in captivity and that they need to be swinging and climbing trees. She says people don’t know the horrific acts that go into capturing the infants, poachers slaughtering the whole family in order to catch the infants.

The hardest part of Bam’s awareness campaign is making people realize gibbons should not live in captivity and the importance of keeping them in the wild.

Bam prepares to take the infant baby gibbons to the sanctuary. The sanctuary land was donated to Bam and her foundation by an environmental activist.

Gibbons primary mode of locomotion, brachiation, involves swinging from branch to branch for distances up to 15 m (50 ft), at speeds as high as 55 km/h (34 mph).

Bam and her team construct a temporary enclosed living area for one of the younger gibbons who is transferring from her home to the jungle as part of the rehabilitation process.

Bam, who acts as a surrogate mother to the infants gibbons, takes an afternoon nap after an active morning training.

Bam will raise the babies for 2 years bottle feeding them and acting as their surrogate mother, but slowly she says she must detach from them and even though it’s heartbreaking she says “if you love them you have to let them go.”

Bam drives the gibbons a short distance down a dirt road towards the jungle playground she and her team of volunteers built.

Gibbons are apes in the family Hylobatidae. The family historically contained one genus, but now is split into four genera and 18 species.

Gibbons are monogamous, something which only happens in 3% of mammals, and is very rare among primates.

There are three species of gibbons, also called “small apes”, in Peninsular Malaysia: the white-handed gibbon, dark-handed or agile gibbon, and the siamang. One additional species, Müller’s Bornean gibbon, lives in East Malaysia.

Bam says the hardest part of her awareness campaign is making people realize gibbons should not live in captivity and the importance of keeping them in the wild.

Bam Ramli, 33, founder of the GPSM (Gibbon Protection Society of Malaysia) holds 9 month-old Cinta at an undisclosed location in Pahang, Malaysia. Cinta was rescued from online traders during a sting operation.

Bam is currently using her own house for the infants because they need constant care and GPSM doesn’t have the proper facilities yet. She says “infants need a warm environment at night and need to be given milk every 4 hours. “

As she crusades to save gibbons throughout Malaysia from the harsh conditions of the illegal pet trade, she has had her life threatened several times.

Inside a Gibbon Sanctuary in Malaysia

This gibbon sanctuary in Malaysia is part of the wider Kindred Guardians project, documenting the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of some of the region’s most endangered apes.

How Gibbons Arrive at the Sanctuary

Most gibbons reach the sanctuary through the illegal pet trade. Poachers kill the mother to take the baby, and the ones that survive arrive malnourished and deeply traumatised. At the gibbon sanctuary, recovery begins with safety, food, medical care, and time away from the people who once treated them as pets. Behind the trade sit the larger threats: forests cleared for palm oil and logging, and the conflict that follows when people and wildlife are pushed into the same shrinking space.

Learning to Be Wild Again in Malaysia

Rehabilitation is slow. It starts with medical care, then the harder work of teaching animals that have spent years in cages how to move, feed, and trust their own kind again. The ones that make it are released and monitored back in the wild.

Gibbons are one of many species fighting to survive. Through this work, Justin wants to give them, and the people caring for them, the voice they deserve. This story is part of his ongoing Kindred Guardians project. See more of Justin’s long-term documentary work in Personal Projects.

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