Protecting the Singing, Swinging Ape

Though they registered officially in 2020, the Gibbon Conservation Society or GCS has been running since 2013, marking 10 years of hard work to rescue and rehabilitate gibbons in Malaysia. Gibbons are an endangered species and are threatened primarily by loss of their forest habitat, but also other factors like the illegal wildlife trade, the use of their body parts in Chinese medicines, and poaching. The group have had many exciting developments this past year, including the historic birth of Axel, the first-ever gibbon baby born at a rehabilitation project in Malaysia, in July 2023. We catch up with Mariani Ramli aka Bam, the President and Founder of GCS, who started the project in 2013 with her own savings, and also Dr. Susan M. Cheyne, the Co-Director of Borneo Nature Foundation International, the Vice-Chair for the IUCN Primate Specialist Group Section on Small Apes, and an advisor to Gibbon Conservation Society. Susan will also share more about her work in protecting endangered gibbons through the IUCN, and also the importance of multi stakeholder collaboration in conservation.

Image Credit: Stephanie Theresa, Infinim Creative Productions / Gibbon Conservation Society