Matang has recently become resident to an adult male Bornean gibbon, named Kiko. A long standing resident at the centre, Teresa, is a female Bornean gibbon, and she has been housed alone for a number of years due to lack of a suitable mate - only a handful of gibbons have arrived at the centre over the years, all female, and female gibbons do not get on well with each other.

After a round of blood tests to check the health of both individuals, Kiko has been moved next door to Teresa, with the bars of a cage separating them to see if they show any affection for each other. The picture below shows the arrangement, though Teresa refuses to pose for our cameras and is hidden at the back of the cage. Kiko is on the right.



They have been living this way for a week now, and to be honest Teresa is not looking very interested. However, it is early days and she has been a bachelorette for a while so we're not writing off the possibility of a partnership just yet.

Just next door, the new gibbon enclosure has been completed and the two smallest gibbons have moved in. Below is a picture of them, but at the time they were hurling themselves around and bouncing off the ropes, so it was hard to catch an image.



This cage is split into three sections, and at the moment these small gibbons have a cage each. They were initially introduced to the same space after residing next to each other in smaller cages for many weeks and showing positive signs of friendship. However, the larger of the two, the male, was so excited to be in the huge space that he frightened the small female and left her a quivering wreck in the corner on the floor! So they are split for now so she has a chance to get used to the new house in relative peace, but there should be no problem with introducing them to the same space in the near future and hopefully a successful partnership will form.

I will attempt to capture some of their joy and acrobatics in a short video and upload it to our facebook group shortly.

Labels: Gibbon, great orangutan project, matang wildlife centre, the great projects

In the last few weeks, a new row of cages has been completed in the quarantine area of Matang Wildlife Centre. As past volunteers will agree, this extra space is long over due and a most welcome addition to the centre.



As you can see from the image, this row will soon be filled with long tail macaques. It means some of the smaller cages that were utilised due to necessity have now been retired, which is great. There are ajoining doors between each cage, to facilitate integration of some of the individuals resident at the centre. Socialising these animals improves their mental wellbeing and enriches their lives, as they live in large troops in the wild and have complex social structures.

Labels: Long tail macaque, matang wildlife centre, the great orangutan project, the great projects