Let's not forget the six GCS gibbons!
Good day dear supporters.
Like you, I am a follower of Gibbon Conservation Society that is proud of their progress and the standards they have been following. PERHILITAN still keeps Daru, Daly, Chantiq, Betsy, Lola and Bella at their rescue centre at Sungkai, Perak.
Please send a tweet to PERHILITAN to ask them to return the gibbons to the GCS centre. Tweet has been prepared for you, simply click on the link below to tweet now.
In 2017 a report by The Star raised serious welfare concerns about animals in PERHILITAN's rescue centres.
We, as the public, our main concern is the welfare of these six gibbons. Rehabilitation is a long term process, especially to a group of animals with high cognitive skills and IQ. This is because the trauma that has been recorded in their brain should be removed, and it needs time and specialised program that not everyone can plan. We know that Miss Mariani Ramli, the director and founder of GCS, is an expert and has years of gibbon rehabilitation experience.
There are a few things that caught my attention from a recent press conference featuring Ms Mariani.
1) She has a very personal understanding about each one of these six gibbons. In the context of rehabilitation, this is one of the most important factors. Different gibbons have different trauma and need personalised programs so that they can achieve all the criteria required for a successful release. According to IUCN there are 7 criterias that has to be achieved before a gibbon can be wild released. And from what Ms Mariani stated, these six gibbons are the seniors and were very close to be released. (Bear in mind that an IUCN specialist had said that removing the gibbons from the GCS centre "will certainly diminish the chances of these gibbons successfully returning to the wild").
2) If these six gibbons are released to the wild without proper rehabilitation, they could easily die as they are not ready yet to survive in the wild.
3) Miss Mariani stated that she is ready to work with PERHILITAN to continue the rehabilitation project at GCS' centre in Pahang.
From my view, and maybe yours too, this is an excellent initiative as PERHILITAN can use GCS' expertise to rehabilitate and release gibbons to the wild. In return, it will also be a great platform for GCS to pass down their knowledge on rehabilitation to other aspiring Malaysian conservationists.
Let's continue our support for GCS. Gibbons are Malaysian endangered species. We have already lost our rhino, we don't want the same thing to happen to our singing apes.